


Year Two

by MagicalStarling



Series: The Next Marauders [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-15 22:49:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 23,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9261617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalStarling/pseuds/MagicalStarling





	1. Chapter One

Chapter One

Harry lay on his back in the garden of number four Privet Drive. He had only arrived at the Dursleys a few days ago and he already missed Hogwarts and his friends desperately. His friends had promised to write to him, but so far he hadn’t received any letters and he wasn’t able to write to them because his uncle had put a lock on Hedwig’s cage. His aunt and uncle had also immediately confiscated his wand and school trunk the moment he arrived at the house.

So far the only thing Harry had to look forward to that summer was 20 July, the date of Sirius Black’s trial. Harry felt confident that his godfather would be found not guilty. For the simple reason that up in Harry’s room locked in a cage was Peter Pettigrew, trapped in his rat animagus form. Pettigrew would be able to prove that Sirius was telling the truth and that it was Pettigrew who had betrayed Harry’s parents, not Sirius.  

And once Sirius Black was found not guilty, Harry would never have to go back to Privet Drive ever again. For Sirius was going to become Harry’s new guardian. Harry just had to make it through until the end of the month. 

Harry heard a soft hissing noise coming from a nearby bush. He looked and saw a snake slithering through the garden.

_ “Hello,” _ hissed Harry. The snake stopped moving and lifted its head to look at Harry, its tongue flickering out at him.

_ “You are a speaker!” _

_ “Yeah, I guess so,” _ said Harry, he had discovered that he could talk to snakes the summer before at the zoo,  _ “Is that very unusual?” _

_ “I have never met a speaker before,” _ said the snake. Harry wasn’t that surprised by this, after all, he assumed that only wizards would be able to speak to snakes and this one was pretty far from the Wizarding World. 

Harry heard his aunt yelling for him to get inside and make dinner, so with a hissed goodbye to the snake, Harry went into the house to work, his short break over. 

That night Harry was jerked awake by the sound of someone knocking at the frontdoor. Who could be here in the middle of the night? He quickly left his room and descended the stairs before the house’s other occupants were woken by the noise. 

Opening the door he was greeted by the sight of a house elf. 

“Harry!” Harry looked up to see the Malfoy’s standing at the edge of the lawn, looking entirely out of place in the muggle neighborhood with their fine wizarding robes, pale blond hair and aristocratic features.

“Draco?” called Harry. “What are you doing here?” Harry found himself grinning at the sight of his friend.

“Haven’t you gotten my letters?” said Draco, “You didn’t respond, so I was worried.”

“Letters?” said Harry in confusion, “I haven’t gotten any letters.”

“Really?” asked Draco, “Well, it doesn’t matter right now, we’re here to spring you!”

“Harry dear,” said Mrs. Malfoy, “we can’t get past the wards, so you will have to invite us in.” 

Harry nodded and invited the Malfoys in. Immediately Draco ran to him and gave him a running hug that was more like a tackle, nearly knocking Harry over. 

“Wow, Draco,” said Harry, “one would think you almost missed me. You only saw me a few days ago.”

“Oh, shut up,” said Draco, though there was no venom in his voice. 

“Where are your things Harry?” asked Mrs. Malfoy.

“Upstairs, my trunk is locked in my aunt and uncle's room,” Harry told her. Harry saw a brief look of anger and disgust flash across her face. Harry knew that Mrs. Malfoy didn’t like his muggle relatives, not that Harry could blame her, he didn’t like them either. She gave a nod and then her and her husband walked into the house to retrieve Harry’s stuff. Harry wished he could see the look on his aunt and uncle’s faces when they awoke to find the witch and wizard standing over them. 

A few minutes later the Malfoys returned, Harry’s trunk and Hedwig’s cage levitating in front of Mr. Malfoy.

“Here you go Harry,” said Mrs. Malfoy, passing Harry his wand, “How about we release your owl now so that she can fly to the manor?” Harry nodded and Mrs. Malfoy unlocked the cage with a flick of her wand and released Hedwig, who flew to Harry, landing on his arm. He instructed her to fly to Malfoy Manor and she soared into the air, disappearing into the night sky. 

Mrs. Malfoy held out her hand to Harry, which he took. Draco took his father’s hand. Mr. Malfoy had already shrunk Harry’s things and put them in his pocket. 

Harry felt a tugging sensation behind his belly bottom, then he felt as though he was being yanked in different directions at once at breakneck speed. He suddenly felt as though he was being jerked to a halt and the only reason he didn’t do a faceplant in the middle of the Malfoy’s entrance hall was thanks to Mrs. Malfoy’s hand on his shoulder. 

Mr. Malfoy unshrunk Harry’s stuff and gave it to a house elf to bring up to the guest bedroom next to Draco’s room that Harry had stayed in over the Christmas break. Mrs. Malfoy suggested that the boys head to bed, or at least try not stay up too late.

Harry and Draco hung out in Draco’s room for a little while. Draco told Harry that he had sent him multiple letters and so had their friends, but when none of them got a response Draco had demanded that his parents go get Harry, which his mother had readily agreed to. Harry told Draco how he hadn’t received any of the letters, which was odd since owls never got lost when they delivered letters. Eventually Harry had to go to bed or risk falling asleep in Draco’s chair. 

The next day Mrs. Malfoy told Harry and Draco that she had been talking to Mrs. Weasley and that they had been invited over to the Burrow to play a game of Quidditch. Harry and Draco were ecstatic and grabbed their broomsticks. They used floo powder to get to the Weasley’s home. 

The Weasley’s home, or the Burrow, appeared as though someone had staked multiple houses on top of each other crookedly and Harry had no doubt that it was held up by magic. The red roof had multiple chimneys sticking up from it. The house was surrounded by rolling fields and chickens wandered the property. Harry thought it was amazing. 

Ron brought them outside to an area of the property that had been made into a makeshift Quidditch field. Neville and Rolf were already there and they greeted Harry with just as much enthusiasm as Draco had. They demanded to know why Harry had not responded to any of their letters and Harry had to tell them about how he had not received any of them, which they agreed was very odd. The only one of their friends who wasn’t there was Hermione, who was currently on holiday with her parents in France, but she had assured Harry that she would be back in time for Sirius’ trial. 

Ron’s older brothers Fred and George, who were beaters on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, joined them and so did Ron’s younger sister Ginny, who Ron said had a crush on Harry, much to his embarrassment. 

Harry had brought the chest with his Quidditch equipment that had been a Christmas gift from the Malfoys and they began to play a modified version of the game, since they didn’t have enough players for a regular Quidditch match.

Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Malfoy sat outside and watched them play, chatting over a pot of tea.

When they eventually left hours later, Mrs. Weasley told them they could come again and Mrs. Malfoy told them they could visit Malfoy Manor anytime. 


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The weeks that followed were some of the best of Harry’s life. Hermione returned from France reuniting the group. They spent their time playing Quidditch at the burrow and scouring the Malfoys’ extensive library, which was even bigger than the Hogwarts’ library. Harry had thought Hermione might faint with joy when she saw it. 

They were able to practice magic within Malfoy Manor because there was so much magic surrounding the area, the trace wouldn’t be able to detect where it came from. Hermione had them practice the spells they would be learning during the coming school year. Ron had brought over his brothers’ old books from their second year for her to look through. They had already taught themselves most of the spells secretly the year before, but they practiced the ones they hadn’t learned and worked on more advanced spells. 

When Draco saw that there was a section on dueling he immediately had a dueling area set up so they could practice. Mr. Malfoy caught them, but to their surprise instead of scolding them, he began teaching them the art of dueling along with several useful spells. He covered them in magical shields so that they could practice the spells without hurting each other. When Mrs. Malfoy found out she threatened her husband, saying that she didn’t want a single scratch on any of them, but she didn’t stop them. 

They even went over to Rolf’s a few times, where he introduced them to his grandfather, Newt Scamander. Rolf’s home was also the home to many magical creatures and Rolf did his best to show them all of them. 

They got to see a group of recently hatched occamy, plumed, two-legged serpentine creatures with wings. One of which took a liking to Harry. 

When they left, Neville discovered that a bowtruckle, a small tree dwelling creature that looked like a green branch with limbs and a face, had hitched a ride with him. Rolf told him he could keep the bowtruckle, and that they were excellent at picking locks. Rolf said it was a female, so Neville named her Tealeaf.   

A few days before the trial Harry made a remark to Draco about wondering where he would live when Sirius was his godfather. 

“The Blacks were a wealthy and powerful family,” said Draco, “you will probably live in one of the Black estates, after all Sirius will receive everything once he’s free, though technically he never lost any of the properties since he wasn’t disowned. Or maybe you’ll live on one of the Potter estates. I’ve been wanting to see the Potter Manor.”

“There’s a Potter Manor?”

“Of course,” said Draco, “and it's yours as the Potter lord.” Harry stared at Draco as though he had sprouted a second head.

“Potter lord? Why does nobody tell me this stuff!”

“Hey, don’t blame me, it’s not my fault that you’re completely clueless!”

The next day Draco told his mother that Harry new nothing of his lordship, so Mrs. Malfoy brought Harry to Gringotts where he was given a list of his titles, a map showing the location of the Potter properties and estates, and the Potter family ring that was always worn by the current Potter lord or lady. The ring would also grant Harry access through the wards surrounding the Potter estates.   

Then it was 20 July, the day of the trial. Mr. Malfoy brought Harry and Draco to the Ministry, where the trial would take place. He had raised an eyebrow when Harry came down with Pettigrew in his rat form, but didn’t question it. Mrs. Malfoy helped pick up Neville and Rolf to bring them to the trial. Mr. Weasley worked at the Ministry of Magic so he brought Ron. He also picked up Hermione since he had a muggle car. 

The courtroom was crowded, reporters stood outside the doors eager to get a picture of Sirius Black. They flocked towards Harry when they arrived, but Mr. Malfoy was able to steer him past them.

They managed to sit in the front row and Harry began to feel nervous. He had gone over what he would say, but he was still worried that it might not be enough. The Ministry would be gunning for a guilty verdict because anything else would reveal how horribly they messed up when it came to Sirius. They were already under a lot heat from the press over the reveal that Sirius, a man from a well known family, had never received a trial in the first place. Other people had already begun demanding trials for family members who were locked away in Azkaban, whether they had already gotten one or not. 

The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, would be overseeing the trial himself and Harry watched as he entered the courtroom and took his seat at the judge’s podium. The noise of conversation died down. Then the doors on the other end of the courtroom opened and in walked a group aurors escorting in Sirius Black. Sirius looked just as thin and gaunt as he had been the last time Harry had seen and his dirty prison garments hung off him. He was led roughly over to the waiting chair in the middle of the room and shackled to it with heavy chains.

Sirius turned and found Harry in the crowd, giving him a small smile. Harry smiled back and held up the cage with Pettigrew in it for Sirius to see. He saw Sirius's eyes widen as he must have realized who it was in the cage.

The trial began with Fudge reaccounting the night of James and Lily Potter’s murder and what they believed to be Sirius’ subsequent actions. His crimes were betraying the Potters and killing the wizard Peter Pettigrew along with twelve muggles. 

After Fudge finished going over the account he offered Sirius veritaserum. Veritaserum was a powerful truth serum and once taken, it was impossible to lie under its effects. It typically wasn’t offered at trials, which Harry found odd, since it would make things so much easier in his opinion. But he had asked Griphook, the goblin who had helped arrange Sirius’’ trial, if the serum could be offered. Fudge seemed rather surprised when Sirius asked to take the serum, but he handed a vial over to one of the aurors who gave Sirius a few drops. 

Then the questions started. What was Sirius’ relationship with the Potter’s? Was he there the night the Potter’s die? Did he have a confrontation with Peter Pettigrew? Harry had expected that none of the questions Fudge asked would help prove Sirius’ innocence, but it still frustrated him and he could tell that Sirius was also growing frustrated with the unhelpful questions. 

Finally Harry was called to the witness stand to the obvious confusion of the crowd. Sirius smiled at him again. Harry was asked about his relationship with Sirius and said how he wished to have Sirius as his guardian like his parents had wanted for him. He told the court the story that Sirius had told him the first time they met and he could hear gasps of surprise and whispers from the crowd. Once Harry had finished Fudge asked Sirius if this was true and Sirius told him it was, which caused an even bigger uproar from the audience since Sirius couldn’t currently lie if he tried. 

“If it would help,” said Harry, “I have Peter Pettigrew right here. He had disguised himself as a pet rat for the past ten years.” He held up the cage for everyone to see. 

Two aurors came up and took it from him. Inside the cage Pettigrew was going crazy, running around like mad and squeaking shrilly. The aurors stunned him and quickly undid the locking spells on the cage so they could remove him from it. Placing the rat on the floor they performed the spell that forced an animagus to revert back to their human form, and the rat disappeared, leaving Peter Pettigrew in its place.

The crowd was going crazy at this point and Fudge was staring at Pettigrew, to stunned to try and control them. Sirius jerked against his chains for a moment at the sight of his old friend as though he wanted to finish him off right then and there, but he stopped when Harry met his eyes. 

Eventually Fudge returned order to the courtroom and declared Sirius Black innocent. The aurors released Sirius from the chains and he was brought out of the courtroom. In the resulting chaos Harry quickly slipped out of the courtroom behind his godfather after sending a grin towards his friends who were beaming. 

Griphook met them outside the courtroom and brought them to a small side room to finish completing the papers for Harry’s guardianship. And with the paperwork completed, Sirius Black officially became Harry Potter’s guardian, just like he was always meant to be.


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Harry told Sirius about his idea for them to move into the main Potter Manor. Sirius agreed, but first he wanted to go to his old home at 12 Grimmauld Place to pick up some of his things. Sirius apparated them in front of the house and they went in.

The frontdoor led to a long hallway that was lit by a large chandelier and gas lamps, but despite the lights the hallway was still covered in shadows. The wallpaper was peeling and the carpet was worn thin.

“I see Kreacher's been keeping up on the place,” Sirius muttered sarcastically, “Kreacher is the house elf,” he told Harry, “Kreacher is old and nasty and he never liked me. I don’t like him much either, but I could still never bring myself to fire him.” 

Suddenly a woman’s voice yelled, “Who’s there?! Intruders! How dare you enter the home of the Noble and Ancient House of Black!” The voice was loud and shrill and Harry winced at the sound of it.

“Shit!” cried Sirius, he ran forward and grabbed a pair of curtains closing them and tying the tassels as fast as he could. Before the curtains closed Harry caught sight of a large portrait of a gray haired woman wearing a black cap. “Sorry about that Harry.”

“Who was that?”

“That was Walburga Black, my dear late mother. Unfortunately the painting is permanently affixed to the wall, no idea how that happened or who’s brilliant idea that was.”

“She seems...loud.”

Sirius chuckled, “She was.”

Harry followed Sirius upstairs and into a bedroom that he guessed used to be Sirius’ room. It was decorated in red and gold, Gryffindor colors. Everything in the room was covered in a layer of dust. Sirius walked over to the windows pulled the curtains open to let in some light, disturbing the dust in the process.

“I bet Kreacher hasn’t stepped foot in my room, but I bet my brother’s room is spotless. I’ll just be a minute Harry, I want to change and grab a few things.” He disappeared into the closet and Harry could hear him moving clothes around. Harry left the room to explore while Sirius got ready. 

He entered the only other room on the landing. If Sirius’ room was decorated in Gryffindor colors, this one was decorated in all Slytherin colors, all emeralds and silvers. The Black family crest was painted above the bed. The Black family crest was a shield with a skull on the top, the top half was red with two black lines sloping down and meeting in the middle. The red part showed a hand holding a knife. The bottom part had three black birds. Unlike Sirius’ room this room appeared to have been dusted recently.  

Harry walked around the room stopping to look at an old photograph of the Slytherin Quidditch team. His eyes caught on one of the players, the seeker. Staring at him, Harry realized that he looked a lot like Sirius. It must be his brother, making this his brother’s room.

Harry walked over to a vanity and saw a bunch of old, yellowed newspaper articles stuck together to form a sort of collage. Looking at the articles Harry realized that they were all about Voldemort. So Sirius’ brother was a Death Eater, or at least supported Voldemort. 

As Harry moved the collage his hand brushed against something that sent strange tingles through his body and he snatched his hand back in surprise. He reached forward again and carefully removed the papers to reveal a gold locket. The locket was large and oval with emeralds in the shape of a serpentine ‘S.’ He cautiously picked up the locket. He felt a strange sensation run through his body and his hand tingled slightly.

“My brother Regulus’ room,” said Sirius. He was standing in the doorway as if unsure whether to cross the threshold. He was wearing nice, but slightly outdated robes and had cut and combed his hair, “What’s you got there?” 

Harry held up the locket for Sirius to see. Sirius walked over to get a closer look, “Strange. I can’t remember ever seeing this before. Must be some old family relic, I never was interested in such things or learning about the family history. I think I know more about the Potters than I do the Blacks. I certainly spent more time with them.” 

Harry turned the locket over in his hand examining it.

“You can take it if you’d like,” said Sirius, “I don’t care. After all, this lovely crumbling old house and everything in it will be yours someday. Now, how about we get out of here before Kreacher shows up or my mother starts yelling again.” 

Harry pocketed the locket and they went downstairs. Sirius was telling him how the wards around the Potter Manor prevented people from just apparating onto the property, but since he had been there before, with Harry’s permission as the Potter Lord, he would be able to apparate them past the wards. 

He had just finished explaining this, when there was a knock at the door. Sirius frowned, “Who could that be?”

He went to door and looked out the peephole. He made a noise of surprise before throwing open the door. 

The man in the doorway was tall, he wore shabby looking wizard robes that were mended in several places. He looked young, but his light brown hair was flecked with grey.  He was pale and looked slightly sickly and tired, with dark circles under his green eyes. Pink scars ran across his face.

“Sirius,” greeted the man. He looked like he might cry. 

“Hello, Remus,” said Sirius, he sounded shocked, “What are you doing here?” 

“I wanted to see you,” said Remus, “I heard about the trial. I wanted to be there, but I couldn’t, considering...well, you know.” Tears began falling down his face. Sirius stood staring, looking uncertain about what to do with the crying man on his doorstep. 

When Sirius continued to just stare, Harry walked up behind his godfather and gave him a gentle nudge forward, “Just hug him already,” he told his godfather, who stepped forward to wrap Remus in a hug. Remus began to cry harder as Sirius led him into the house and into a sitting room. Harry lit a fire in the room’s fireplace before going in search of the kitchen to make some tea. 

So this was Remus Lupin, Sirius’ and his father’s school friend. Harry remembered from Sirius’ story that Remus was a werewolf. Sirius, his father, and Peter Pettigrew had become animagus in order to keep Remus company during the full moon.

Harry eventually found the kitchen after a few wrong turns and began making tea. He found a tray and a tea set in a cabinet and pulled it out, washing them in the sink before using them. 

He took his time making the tea, wanting to give Sirius and Remus some time to talk alone. He new that they had a lot to talk about. Remus had believed up until the trial that Sirius had betrayed James and Lily because he had known that Sirius was their Secret Keeper. He wasn’t aware of the fact that they had switched to make Pettigrew the Secret Keeper instead. Sirius had told Harry that Remus didn’t know about the change because they thought Remus was a traitor. At the time a lot of werewolves were joining up with Voldemort.

Harry carried the tray back into the parlor. Remus and Sirius were sitting across from each other on the couch and Remus had stopped crying. He placed the tray on the table and poured the tea. When Remus saw Harry his mouth dropped open and he looked a little like he might start crying again. Harry guessed that he was seeing his father when he looked at him. 

Remus recovered from the shock of seeing Harry and smiled. He held out his hand and introduced himself. Harry shook his hand, returning the smile. 

“You’re lucky you caught us here,” Sirius told Remus, “we were just getting ready to leave. We’re going to move into Potter Manor. This place is too much of a dump to live in. Hey Harry, I was thinking, maybe Remus should move in with us.”

“What?” said Remus, “No, I couldn’t possibly-”

“You should,” interrupted Harry, “if it’s anything like Malfoy Manor, there will be more than enough room.”

“Oh, it’s even better,” said Sirius, “I’ve never actually stepped foot onto Malfoy Manor, but I can guarantee that it's much better.” 

After a little more convincing, Remus finally agreed to move into the Potter Manor with them. Sirius grabbed a trunk he had packed and grabbed both their hands and after Harry gave them verbal consent to enter through the manor’s wards, they then apparated to Potter Manor. 

Harry gasped in amazement at his first sight of his ancestral home. It was surrounded by a huge plot of land with a large black iron fence surrounding the property. Several large fountains led up to steps that led to the huge oak front doors. The manor was enormous, made out of a orange-yellow stone, that Harry thought gave the manor a cheery feel, and it had lots of windows. 

As they walked towards the manor, Sirius told Harry about its history. It had been built in 1066 by Percival Potter, though it had been updated some since. The manor had once been co-owned by Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin back when they were still friends, and there were still hidden passages created by Slytherin that nobody could open. 

“You lived here briefly with your parents before moving to Godric’s Hollow,” said Sirius, “Your grandmother, Dorea Black, used to live in the Dower House on the estate once your parents moved in.” 

They entered the houses’ foyer, which was made of white marble with blue stone designs. A large grand staircase dominated the room. It had high ceilings with blue and gold tiles depicting different images. There was a picture of a town on the wall, a grandfather clock, and several suits of armour, that Sirius said were enchanted to defend the home. 

Several house elves appeared to greet them, bowing so low and eagerly that their large ears brushed the floor. They welcomed Harry as the new lord to the manor and informed him that his owl had arrived and was currently resting in the owlery. 

Sirius gave Harry the grand tour, while Remus went to get his stuff to move in. The manor was just as huge as Harry thought and was made up of the east and west wings. Sirius showed Harry the master bedroom, which he said Harry could stay in, his father’s old room, the room he had stayed when he ran away to stay with the Potters, the greenhouse and he also told him that his grandfather, Charlus Potter, had added a Quidditch field near the back of the property, much to the horror of his wife. 

The Potter library was enormous, and had an upstairs and downstairs. The upstairs portion was heavily warded because it contained books on dark magic, most of which had come from Salazar Slytherin himself. Sirius said that if Harry was interested, he could work on expanding the library and add the Black’s extensive library of books to it while Harry was away at school. He also showed Harry a door that was covered in stone snakes in the corner of the library that supposedly led to Slytherin’s private tower, but nobody had ever managed to open it. 

Once Remus returned they all went to the dining room to eat a dinner prepared by the house elves. Harry then went to the owlery to send letters to his friends before heading to bed.   


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The next day when Harry woke up, Sirius had already left to visit a therapist to help him recover from his ordeal in Azkaban. This had been a part of the agreement to allow him to become Harry’s guardian. Harry ate breakfast with Remus who told him that an owl had arrived from Griphook informing them that Peter Pettigrew’s trial would be taking place later that week and that upon Harry’s request he would once again help oversee the trial. Harry had also requested that Griphook become the personal goblin to the Potter fortune, which he had immediately agreed to.

The  _ Daily Prophet _ front page had a large article about Sirius’ trial and Pettigrew’s upcoming trial. It sounded like the author, Rita Skeeter, wanted Pettigrew to get a dementor’s kiss rather than prison time. Pettigrew was currently staying in Azkaban until the trial, which wouldn’t be open for the public. 

With Remus’ permission Harry invited his friends to come over later that day. He showed them around the manor and Draco declared it as ‘okay.’ They then played Quidditch for a little while before Hermione insisted they go inside and look at the library. 

Sirius came home around lunchtime, looking drained, but otherwise alright. Harry introduced him to his friends. 

“How did you manage to survive in Azkaban and not go completely insane?” Ron asked him after several minutes of talking.

“One of the perks of being an animagus,” he told them, “Dementors are blind and they can’t sense animals, so as long as I returned to my human form the few times an auror would stop by, I could stay as a dog and go undetected, so they wouldn’t feed off me.”

“When did you become an animagus?” asked Rolf.

“During our fifth year at Hogwarts we finally figured it out.”

“I’d like to become an animagus,” commented Harry. Sirius’ eyes lit up at this.

“Would you now?” he said, “I happen to know that there are some mandrakes growing in the greenhouse right now.”

“Mandrakes? What are they for?” asked Draco.

Sirius gave a mischievous grin, “Well, if you want to become an animagus everyone knows that the first step is to hold a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month.”

Next thing they knew they had all run down to the greenhouse and Sirius was helping them cut off mandrake leaves that weren’t too large.

“What are you doing?” asked Remus, entering the greenhouse. 

“They want to become animagus!” said Sirius.

Remus looked tired as he spoke, “So you just had to help them. Do you know how much trouble they could get into?”

“That’s exactly why I’m helping,” said Sirius, “Think of all the pranks they could pull when they go back to school!”

“That’s not what I meant!” said Remus, but he just shook his head and left, saying that he wanted no part in this. 

They each picked out a mandrake leaf and placed it in their mouths. It tasted earthy, but it wouldn’t rot, which Harry was grateful for. Harry managed to fit his leaf under his mouth, but he wasn’t able to talk, which Sirius seemed to find hilarious.

“When I became an animagus, we weren’t smart enough to do this over the summer. Remus had to tell all our teachers that we had taken a vow of silence.” 

On 31 July, Harry’s birthday, Harry was awoken by Sirius bursting into his room and jumping on top of him.

“I couldn’t restrain him any longer,” said Remus. Harry was dragged downstairs and given a giant stack of pancakes, which Sirius began complaining he was eating to slow five minutes in. 

“Are you sure you’re not the twelve year old?” asked Remus, Sirius’ response was to throw a pancake at his face. 

Once Harry was finished eating they gave him his presents. Sirius’ present was poorly wrapped in hot pink wrapping paper. It was a new broomstick, the Nimbus 2001. Remus, who had much better wrapping skills, gave him books. Harry smiled at them, unable to talk with the mandrake leaf in his mouth. 

Harry’s friends came over later and they went to visit muggle London, which had been Harry and Hermione’s ideas, since they figured it would be hilarious to see the others reactions to the muggle world, and it was. 

Neville had never seen a car before and was nearly flattened when he stepped into oncoming traffic. They all jumped in surprise when they took them into a store that sold televisions and turned one of them on. They bought a VCR player that could be attached to a projector to stream movies, along with several movies to watch at Hogwarts. 

They went into a music store and Rolf bought a bright orange portable CD player with matching headphones and a giant stack of CDs, all rock, including  _ Queen _ ,  _ The Beatles _ , and  _ The Rolling Stones _ . The only non rock CD he got was, strangely enough,  _ The Sound of Music _ . 

They then returned to Potter Manor for cake and presents. Ron gave Harry a Quidditch book,  _ Quidditch Through the Ages _ . Hermione gave him a broomstick maintenance kit. Neville gave him a moving cactus that would work as an alarm system if anyone tried to touch his stuff. Draco gave him a new potions kit that would fit in his trunk. And Rolf gave him the occamy that had taken a liking to Harry when he had visited Rolf’s house earlier in the summer. 

“Isn’t that illegal?” wrote Hermione on the parchment they were passing around to communicate with it. 

“So is Norbert,” wrote Ron.

“It was my grandfather’s idea,” wrote Rolf, “he was acting lonely after Harry left. Plus he can shrink, so you can easily hide him.” 

They then passed the parchment around writing suggestions for names. In the end they decided on Jormungandr, or Jormy, for short. This had been Draco’ idea, after the snake in Norse Mythology that swallowed the world. They decided that the occamy was snake like enough to earn the name. 

It was certainly going to be an interesting year thought Harry. 


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

When a month had passed with the mandrake leaf in his mouth, Harry was relieved to finally remove it and be able to talk. Now Harry would give the mandrake leaf to Draco, who had volunteered to make them each the potion they would have to drink. He would then have to recite the incantation ‘Amato Amino Animato Animagus’ on a daily basis and then meditate on the transformation before he would be able to achieve his animagus form. 

The day that Harry was able to remove the leaf, was also the day he had agreed to meet with his friends in Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies. Sirius and Remus apparated him to Diagon Alley and they went to Gringotts Bank first so Harry could take out some money. 

They split up to get Harry’s supplies. Harry went to Flourish and Blotts where he met up with the others. The bookstore was crowded with a line out the door. 

“Gilderoy Lockhart is here,” said Ron, “he’s doing a book signing. Mum’s in line, she loves him.” 

Harry looked at his list of required books, “Well, our new professor really likes Gilderoy Lockhart, either that, or he is Gilderoy Lockhart.”

“Oh, I hope not,” said Draco.

“Why ever not?” asked Hermione, “He’s amazing! He’s written so many books!”

“He attempted to make shampoo out of occamy eggs,” said Rolf, “Do you know how protective occamy are about their eggs? The shampoo was deemed too dangerous and expensive to sell.” 

Harry stroked Jormy under his chin. The occamy was currently curled around Harry’s wrist, his head poking out from under his sleeve. 

They went into the shop, squeezing past the line of older witches clutching Lockhart’s book,  _ Magical Me _ , eagerly. They decided to divide and conquer, and split up to find their books after each grabbing a store cart, which had featherlight charms on them, so no matter how much you put in it, it would remain as light as a feather. 

Harry had just grabbed several copies of  _ The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 _ , when he saw Mrs. Weasley waiting in line. 

“Hello, Harry dear,” she called, waving to him.

“Hello, Mrs. Weasley, waiting to see Lockhart?”

“Yes, he should be here any minute…” she reached up and smoothed her hair down. 

Then Gilderoy Lockhart entered and the witches burst into applause. He had wavy blond hair that he must have spent at least an hour working on. He was wearing light blue robes that matched his eyes and was giving the crowd a large smile. Harry thought he showed to many teeth when he smiled, and his teeth were so white they practically sparkled. 

Lockhart sat down at the table surrounded by his books, which showed pictures of him giving an identical smile and winking at the camera, in what Harry assumed was supposed to be a flirtatious manner, but looked more like his eye was twitching.

The others had walked up to join Harry and to get a closer look at Lockhart. Harry noticed that Hermione was the only one of them who joined in the applause. 

A man was taking pictures with a large camera that emitted purple smoke and a blinding flash each time he took a picture. Jormy, who had made his way from Harry’s arm to his shoulder, was poking his head out of Harry’s shirt collar. He was staring at the camera in fascination. 

Suddenly, Jormy launched himself towards the camera and Harry jumped forward and grabbed him out of the air and quickly tucked him back in his robes. In doing so, he had accidently bumped into the camera man.

“Watch it,” he snarled, “This is for the  _ Daily Prophet _ .” 

The commotion caught Lockhart’s attention and he looked up from where he was signing a book. He stared at Harry, then lept to his feet, “It  _ can’t _ be! It’s Harry Potter!”

Harry wanted to run, but the crowd had begun pushing him forward and Lockhart dove forward and grabbed him, pulling him to the front. Harry tried not to scowl as Lockhart shock his hand for the photographer, “Nice big smile, Harry, we’ll make the front page,” said Lockhart. 

Harry glanced over at his friends, Rolf, Ron and Neville gave him sympathetic looks, while Hermione seemed excited for him. But Draco, he looked like he was trying not to burst out laughing.

Harry was beginning to feel like Lockhart would never let go of his hand, when he suddenly yanked back his hand with a sound of alarm. Harry struggled not to grin when he realized that Jormy had bit Lockhart’s thumb. Lockhart quickly regained his composure and turned to address the crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he called, “What an extraordinary moment this is! When young Harry here walked into this shop, he only wanted to buy my autobiography-”

“Actually,” interrupted Harry, “I was just trying to get my school books, so if you would excuse me, I need to get going.” He quickly ducked away from a flabbergasted Lockhart and went to the counter to pay for his books with his friends. 

Ginny joined them as they left the shop. As they were leaving Mr. Malfoy entered, accidently bumping into Ginny in the crowded doorway, “My apologies,” he said to her, “There you are Draco, I was just coming to see if you needed help getting your books. I can take them for you.” 

Draco handed his books to his father, who then left to meet up with his wife. The group bought strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams and walked around, looking at the shops.

“Hey, Ron,” said Harry, “it occurred to me that it’s kinda my fault that you no longer have a pet, so I’d like to get you a new one.” 

Ron’s eyes lit up and Rolf looked just as eager. They went to the Magical Menagerie, which was very noisy, smelly, and cramped, with every surface being covered in cages. Rolf excitedly pointed out animals to Ron, while Hermione went to look at owls. 

In the end, Ron chose a jarvey, which resembled an overgrown ferret, that he named Archie. They were about to leave when a large orange cat jumped off one of the cages, nearly hitting Draco. The cat was bandy-legged and had a squished face, as though he had run into a wall multiple times. He had a huge bottlebrush tail and yellow eyes. 

Jormy climbed out of Harry’s sleeve to get a closer look at the cat and Hermione bent down to pet it. Rolf leaned over to look at it.

“I think that cat is part Kneazle,” he said, “Kneazles are very intelligent and can detect people who are distrustful or untrustworthy.”

Hermione decided to get the cat, which she was told was named Crookshanks, and had been at the shop for many years. 

They then left the shop and went to Gringotts, where they had agreed to meet their families. But first, Draco took their mandrakes leaves and placed them in bottles labeled with their names, so he could make the potions for them. 

Harry said goodbye to his friends before apparating back to Potter Manor with Sirius and Remus. He would be seeing his friends in a few days on the Hogwarts Express.     


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

On the night before Harry was to leave for school, Sirius and Remus threw him a huge dinner with all his favourites. They stayed up late talking, but eventually Remus suggested that Harry should get some sleep. 

Harry had already packed all his school supplies in his trunk so that he would be ready to go in the morning. 

When he got to his room, Harry was shocked to see an unfamiliar house elf, no, not unfamiliar, Harry recognized him from his time at Malfoy Manor. He was wearing a dirty pillowcase and looked terrified, and Harry quickly saw why.

Jormy, who was coiled around Harry’s bedpost, had grown in size and was leaning over the elf threateningly. 

“Jormy,” snapped Harry, “get away from him.” Jormy stared at Harry for a moment, before moving away from the house elf and sliding off the bedpost. He jumped off the bed, going over the elf and curled up in front of the fireplace. 

Harry turned his attention to the elf, “Hello, what are you doing here?”

“Mister Harry Potter, sir,” said the house elf, “my name is Dobby. I have come to warn Harry Potter, you are in grave danger.”

“Danger?”

“Harry Potter must not return to Hogwarts.”

“Not return to Hogwarts?” asked Harry with a chuckle, “Why would I do that? Do the Malfoys know that you’re here?”

“No sir,” said Dobby, “My master does not know that Dobby is visiting Harry Potter. Master wouldn’t like Dobby warning Harry Potter about the danger he is in. Dobby will be punished. Harry Potter must stay home, that is why Dobby took Harry Potter’s letters.”

“My letters?” asked Harry, “What letters? Wait, do you mean the ones from earlier this summer, the ones my friends sent me that I never got?”

Dobby nodded, “Dobby thought that if Harry Potter thought his friends forgot him, he would not wish to return to school.”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure if they didn’t contact me, that would have given me another reason to go back to school, so I could yell at them for ignoring me. But what danger am I in? I mean, last year my Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher turned out to have Voldemort on the back of his head.” 

“Dobby cannot say, sir.”

“Well Dobby, I think you should head back to Malfoy Manor if you can’t tell me anything else. And I’m going to be on that train tomorrow, and that’s final.” 

Dobby stared at Harry, before shaking his head and disappearing with a snap of his fingers. Harry looked over at Jormy, “Well, that was odd.” 

Harry went to sleep and woke up bright and early the next morning. He grabbed his trunk and Hedwig’s cage, which was empty since Hedwig would make her way to Hogwarts on her own. He shrunk both down and put them in his pocket. Jormy shrunk so that he could curl around Harry’s neck, just under his collar. 

When he was about to leave his room, his eyes caught on the locket he had taken from Remus Black’s room, and he decided to take it with him, putting it in his pocket. 

He ate breakfast with Sirius and Remus before they apparated him to the platform. Everyone but the Weasley’s were already there. Harry said goodbye to Sirius and Remus, giving both men a hug before boarding the train. They found an empty compartment and sat down.

“Where are they?” asked Hermione, “They’re going to miss the train!”

“Ron said that they were coming through on the muggle side through Kings Cross station,” said Rolf, “There are two many of them to apparate.” 

“They probably have a lot of stuff to carry,” said Harry, “I wonder if they need help.” 

When a few more minutes had passed and there was still no sign of the Weasleys, Harry decided that he would go into Kings Cross and see if they were there and needed some help. Draco decided to go with him.

“Make sure you’re not late!” called Hermione as they left. Harry and Draco went through the barrier and they didn’t have to go far before they spotted the red headed family. Draco helped Ron push his cart and Harry helped Ginny with her stuff. 

Harry noticed that Ginny looked pale and rather out of it. He wondered if she was scared about going to Hogwarts. She was clutching a black book to her chest protectively. Harry tried to give her a reassuring smile, but she barely looked at him. Mrs. Weasley came over and took Ginny’s things from Harry, so that she could help Ginny through the barrier. 

Harry watched as the rest of the family went through until it was just him, Ron and Draco left to go through the barrier. Harry grabbed a part of Ron’s cart and ran towards the column, but instead of going through it like everyone before them, they went crashing into it, with a loud bang, and the cart tipped over. 

“Bloody hell!” cried Ron, and Archie repeated the sentiment, surprising Harry. Rolf had said that the jarvey could talk, though you couldn’t hold conversations with it, but this was the first time Harry had heard him speak. 

Jormy stuck his head out of Harry’s collar, grumbling at him.

“What just happened?” asked Harry, he reached forward and touched the column, which was now completely solid, “Why can’t we get through the barrier?”

“I don’t know!” said Draco, who was banging desperately on the column, “We should be able to get through, the train doesn’t leave for another three minutes!” 

“What are we supposed to do?” asked Harry.

“The car!” said Ron suddenly.

“We can’t drive to Hogwarts, Ron!” said Draco, as he continued to pound on the column.

“Yes we can,” said Ron, “my dad enchanted it so that it can fly!” 

Harry and Draco stared at Ron in disbelief before grabbing Ron’s luggage and following him out to the blue Ford Anglia. They got in, with Ron getting in the driver’s seat. He started the car and after making sure that no one was watching, he tapped the dash with his wand and then pressed a silver button that caused the car to vanish, becoming invisible along with everything and everyone inside it. 

The car rose above the ground, then the buildings, and then they could see all of London spread out beneath them. Then suddenly they became visible again, then disappeared and reappeared a few times, before becoming visible again. Ron pressed the silver button multiple times, but nothing happened. He quickly brought the car up into the clouds and they hoped that no one had spotted them.

Ron dipped the car below the cloud cover a few times before they spotted the Hogwarts Express, which Ron followed. They agreed that they would check to make sure that they were still following the train every thirty minutes.

“Why couldn’t we get through?” asked Draco, “That shouldn’t have happened!” 

“I don’t know,” said Harry, “Wait! Dobby!”

“Dobby?” said Draco, “The house elf?”

Harry nodded and quickly told Draco and Ron about how Dobby had visited him the night before, “Elf magic works differently than wizard magic,” said Harry, “I bet that he prevented us from going through the barrier.”

“I’m going to kill that elf,” said Draco.

“No,” said Harry, “don’t be too harsh on him, I think in his own weird way, he was trying to help. He seemed to really believe that I would be in danger if I went back to Hogwarts. He was trying to protect me.”

“Bloody good job he’s done,” commented Ron, “But at least we can make an entrance, Fred and George will be so jealous.”

They continued to check on the train as they went, but several hours in, the car began to make a whining noise. They glanced at each other nervously and Ron pressed on the accelerator, they needed to get the car out of the air as soon as possible. 

As they continued the whining noise became louder, but then they saw the glittering lights of Hogwarts in the distance and sighed in relief, “We made it!” said Ron.

But the car was losing speed and had begun to shudder. 

“Step on it!” said Draco, “We haven’t made it!” 

Jormy was making little squeaking noises next to Harry’s ear, “Oh, quiet you,” said Harry, “You have wings, if we fall out of the sky, you’ll be fine.”

They had made it over the lake when the engine completely failed and they began falling, diving out of the sky. 

“Stop!” yelled Ron, wacking his wand against the dashboard, but nothing happened. 

“Tree!” yelled Draco, and sure enough the car was heading towards a tree, but not just any tree Harry realized in terror, but the whomping willow. Sirius and Remus had told him about the tree and how it would crush anything that came too close to it. 

The car hit the tree with a loud crunch, then dropped to the ground with a jolt, the hood was crumpled and steam was coming out of it. Harry reached a hand to his head, where he had hit it against the windshield.

Harry then saw movement outside of the car and he remembered just where they were, “Run!”

A tree branch came smashing down on the car as they scrambled out and ran as far as they could before collapsing onto the ground. As they watched, another branch came down on the car, which suddenly reversed. Once the car was out of the tree’s range, it stopped, and ejected Ron’s luggage from the back, before driving into the forbidden forest. 

“Well, that happened,” said Draco, “Wait until my father hears about this!” 

“I’m so dead!” said Ron, “Dad’s going to kill me, and look at my wand!” Ron held up his wand, which had been broken nearly in half. 

“At least it wasn’t your neck,” said Harry. 

“Yeah, we can sneak down to Hogsmeade and get that repaired,” said Draco. 

They got to their feet and picked up Ron’s luggage, which they then shrunk to make it easier to carry, “So much for our grand entrance,” grumbled Ron.

They began the long walk up to the castle.

“Well, just think,” said Harry, “if the teachers don’t kill us, Hermione will.”    


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

As they were walking up, Ron stopped at one of the windows, “Look, the sorting is starting!” Harry looked in the window and saw the Great Hall. At the front of the room was a line of first years. Harry immediately spotted Ginny with her bright red hair. Professor McGonagall had just brought out the sorting hat and placed in on a stool in front of the students.

“Let’s stay and watch the sorting,” said Ron, “I want to see Ginny get placed in Gryffindor.”

They stood at the window watching; they could see the hat moving and knew that it was singing, then the first student was called up to be sorted. 

“Hey,” said Draco suddenly, “Snape’s not at the teacher’s table.”

“Maybe he’s sick?” said Harry.

“I just saw him a few days ago and he was fine,” replied Draco, “I wonder where he is?”

“Perhaps, he was wondering the same thing about you three and wondering why you weren’t on the train with the other students.”

The three boys jumped in surprise and turned to see a very displeased looking Professor Snape, “Follow me,” he snapped. 

The boys glanced at each other, before following the potions master. He led them into the castle, past the Great Hall, and into his office in the dungeons. The room was cold, with the fire not lit, and had shelves lined with jars filled with all different potions ingredients. 

“So,” he began, quietly, “the train isn’t good enough for the likes of you three. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did you?”

“No, sir, it was the barrier-”

“Silence!” hissed Snape, “Where is the car?”

They stared at Snape in shock, how did he know that they had arrived by car? Snape then pulled out the day’s issue of the  _ Evening Prophet _ .

“You were seen, by no less than seven muggles. Doesn’t your father work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office?” he said looking at Ron, who turned red, “Oh dear... his own son…”

“It wasn’t our fault,” said Draco, “we tried to stay hidden! We couldn’t get through the barrier, we were stranded, so we just sort of panicked!” Snape looked at his godson, his expression unreadable, but Harry was sure that the only reason they weren’t currently on the Hogwarts Express heading home was because of Draco’s presence. 

“I also noticed,” he continued, “that there was considerable damage done to a very valuable whomping willow.”

“I think the tree did more damage to  _ us. _ ” said Ron.

“We didn’t exactly want to hit a tree, let alone one that could hit back,” said Draco. 

“You should be expelled for this,” said Snape.

“Expelled?!” interrupted Draco, “Are you really going to expel me, your own godson? I’ll be looking forward to hearing you explain that to my father!” Snape once again stared at Draco, before letting out a long sigh.

“I believe that I said, that you  _ should _ be expelled, not that I would expel you. But be warned, one more mistake like this, and you will be heading home. Though you will be receiving detention. Now, go to your dorms.” 

They left Snape’s office, “How are we supposed to go to our dorms?” asked Ron, “We don’t know the new password!”

“Come with me,” said Draco, “Slytherin always uses the same first password at the beginning of the year.” They walked through the dungeons until Draco brought them to a stone wall, that looked identical to every stone wall around it, until Harry noticed a small carving of a snake near the ceiling. 

“Pureblood,” said Draco, and the wall slide away to reveal a passage.

“Wow,” said Ron, “how original, never would have guessed that.”

The Slytherin common room was filled with low backed black and dark green button-tufted, leather sofas. There were numerous skulls worked into the green, silver, and black decorations. There were lots of dark wood cupboards and the walls were covered in tapestries depicting medieval wizards. The mantle had a picture of a serpent above it. The common room had windows that looked out into the lake, casting a greenish glow on the room and Harry could hear the faint noise of lapping water. 

“We’re not supposed to bring outsiders into the common room,” said Draco as he sat in one of the chairs by the windows, “You’re the first outsiders to enter in seven centuries.” 

Ron and Harry sat down in seats next to Draco, “Sometimes you see things out the windows,” he told them, “Last year, Goyle woke up to find the giant squid staring at him. You should have heard him, he screamed like a little girl.” 

They chatted for a little while, before Ron’s stomach started growling, so they went to the kitchens and grabbed some food. They then headed to the Great Hall, where the feast was just finishing up. They waited until the students were leaving before making their way forward in search of Hermione, Neville, and Rolf. 

“There you are!” cried Hermione, “Where were you?”

“The barrier was sealed by an overly concerned house elf, so we had to take a flying car here. But we crashed into a tree and its now wondering through the forest,” said Draco.

“What?” said Rolf, “I’m very confused.” 

“How about we go someplace to talk about this,” said Harry. They agreed, and went to the Hufflepuff common room, where the three boys told the others everything that had happened. 

“I can’t believe you weren’t expelled,” said Hermione, “the only reason you’re still here is because of Snape’s favouritism.”

“Well, Draco is his godson, Hermione,” said Harry from where he sat on the floor in front of the fireplace. Jormy had grown in size and was curled around Harry’s middle, “if he wasn’t there, we wouldn’t be here now.” 

They chatted for a few more hours, then when they decided that everyone in the castle should be sleeping, they snuck out and went to the forbidden forest, “Do you think we’ll find the car?” asked Ron.

“I doubt it,” said Harry, “it was going pretty fast, but if we did find it, it would certainly make visiting Norbert easier.” They made their way towards the barrier that held the dragon, who was now larger than a car. 

Norbert made a humming noise and blew smoke out his nostrils when he saw them. Jormy launched himself off Harry and grew to match Norbert’s size, before approaching the dragon. The two began circling each other curiously, before beginning a game of playfight. 

Rolf stayed to watch the two creatures to make sure that they wouldn’t start to actually fight, while the others went to expand the magical barrier to give Norbert more room. 

They then went back to the castle. Jormy flew above them until they got to the edge of the forest, then Harry called to him and he once again shrunk down and wrapped around his wrist. 

Before they went their dorms they decided to look for a secret room that Hermione had read about in the Potter library. It was called the Room of Requirement, or the Come and Go Room. It was supposedly located on the seventh floor in the left corridor, with a hidden entrance across from a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls ballet. 

But on the way, the staircases kept shifting and they found themselves in a part of the castle they didn’t recognize.

“Not again,” said Neville, “We just got here, we can’t have gotten lost already.”

“Sirius told me about a map that the Marauders made when they went to Hogwarts,” said Harry, “They made it so you could see where everyone was in the school, but he’s not sure where it is now.” The idea of the map seemed to fascinate Hermione, who said that she wanted to try and make one of her own. 

They eventually found themselves in a corridor near the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower, and they all crashed there for the night. 


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

The next morning was the start of classes and they were beginning to regret staying up so late the night before. Draco, who wasn’t much of a morning person to begin with, almost fell asleep in the Great Hall.

When the owls arrived with the mail, Neville received a large package with the things he had forgotten at home. Draco also received a letter from his parents, which he put in his bag, mumbling that he would read it later.

Then Errol, the Weasley’s owl, came crashing into the table, sending food and feathers everywhere.

“Errol!” cried Ron, he then went extremely pale.

“It’s okay,” said Rolf, “I think Errol is fine.

Ron just shook his head and pointed to the red envelope on Errol’s leg. 

“What is that?” asked Harry in confusion.

“She sent me a howler,” said Ron.

“You better just go ahead and open it Ron,” said Neville, “It will be worse if you ignore it, Gran once sent me one and I ignored it, it was horrible,” he shuddered at the memory.

The letter began to smoke as Ron removed it from Errol’s leg. He opened the letter and Mrs. Weasley’s voice came out from it, yelling, a hundred times louder than usual, making everyone in the hall turn and look.

“RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THE CAR, I WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF YOU HAD BEEN EXPELLED, WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU! DID YOU EVEN STOP TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE DISCOVERED THAT IT WAS GONE! YOUR FATHER IS FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK! WE ARE ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! IF YOU PUT JUST ONE TOE OUT OF LINE WE ARE BRINGING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!” 

The envelope then turned towards Ginny who was sitting at the end of the table by herself, “And Ginny dear,” the envelope said in a normal volume, “we are so proud that you are in Gryffindor.” The envelope then blew a raspberry at Ron and burst into flames, disintegrating into ashes. A few people laughed before returning to their conversations. 

“Um, Harry,” said Neville, who was pointing towards the ceiling. Harry looked up and saw Hedwig flying towards him, and he could already see a red envelope of his own tied to her leg.

“Ah, great,” he said, as she landed next to him, “Let’s get this over with.” He removed the letter and opened it. The hall had once again died down to listen, as others had also spotted the bright red envelope. 

“HARRY!” yelled Sirius, but he sounded excited rather than angry, “HOW COULD YOU DRIVE A CAR TO HOGWARTS! OKAY, I’M NOT EVEN MAD, I’M ACTUALLY RATHER IMPRESSED. MERLIN’S BEARD I’M PROUD.”

In the background Harry heard Remus, “SIRIUS NO.”

Then Sirius continued, “NEXT TIME TAKE THAT TREE DOWN! AND MAKE SURE TO GET INTO LOTS OF TROUBLE, I MEAN, NO! I MEANT TO SAY DON’T GET IN TROUBLE, DAMN, I’M REALLY BAD AT THIS PARENTING THING, AREN’T I?” The letter then blew a raspberry and disintegrated like Ron’s had. This time there was an uproar of laughter from the hall. 

“Wow,” said Draco, “I can’t believe Sirius is supposed to be the responsible adult looking after you.”

“He has Remus,” said Harry, “he’s the responsible one.” 

They then went to class, Gryffindor had double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs first. They went to the greenhouse and joined the others waiting for Professor Sprout. 

When Professor Sprout appeared, she was accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart, who was indeed their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Professor Sprout looked as though she was trying to get away from Lockhart, who couldn’t take a hint.

“Hello everyone!” called Lockhart, “I was just telling Professor Sprout here the best way to doctor a whomping willow, after all I am rather skilled in Herbology myself, having come across many exotic plants in my travels-”

“Greenhouse Three everyone,” interrupted Professor Sprout. The class moved towards the greenhouse in excitement, they had only ever worked in Greenhouse One before. Neville, who loved Herbology, was especially excited. 

“Harry!” called Lockhart, “I’ve been wanting a word with you-”

“No, thank you, Professor,” said Harry, running forward and ducking into the greenhouse. Lockhart reached forward as if to try and grab Harry, but Jormy chose that moment to stick his head out from Harry’s collar, causing Lockhart to recoil, no doubt remembering how Jormy had bit his finger in the bookstore. 

“I’ll catch you later Harry,” he called.

In the greenhouse there was a table filled with pots and earmuffs on the benches. Harry recognized the nearby plants as mandrakes.

“Today you will be repotting mandrakes,” Professor Sprout told them, “Can anyone tell me the properties of a mandrake?” She called on Neville.

“Mandrakes, are a powerful restorative. They’re used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state. Mandrake leaves are also used in the first step to becoming an animagus. The mandrake’s cry is fatal to anyone who hears it.” 

“Correct. Ten points to Gryffindor,” said Professor Sprout, “Now, everyone put on your earmuffs and make sure that they are nice and snug. These mandrakes here are young, so their cries aren’t fatal, but they will knock you out.”

They spent the rest of the class pulling the mandrakes out of their pots and replanting them in new pots. Harry thought that they were rather hideous, looking like very ugly babies with leaves growing out of their heads. 

The group was joined by a curly-haired Hufflepuff who introduced himself as Justin Finch-Fletchley. 

About halfway through the class, Harry realized that Rolf wasn’t wearing earmuffs, but instead had put on his orange headphones and was listening to his portable CD player. 

After class the Gryffindors went to transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. They were turning beetles to buttons, something they had all practiced over the summer. Harry and Hermione easily transformed their beetle, but Ron was having difficulties. His wand, which he had wrapped with spellotape, kept making sparks every time he tried to use it.

“We’ll go down to the wand shop in Hogsmeade after dinner tonight,” Harry told him.

They went to lunch and then spent their break at the library. Hermione wanted to work on making a map of the school. They found a book which had a map of the school, but Hermione said that she would still need the exact measurements of the rooms for it to work. She would also need to find a way to tap into the school’s wards to make it show everyone in the school on the map.   

Harry, Ron, Draco and Neville, then headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The classroom had been decorated with lots of paintings and photographs, all of Lockhart. At the front of the classroom there was a cage under a cloth. 

Lockhart, came sweeping out of his office to greet the class, grinning widely. Jormy made a noise somewhere between a hiss and a growl when he saw Lockhart. 

“As you all now,” said Lockhart, “I am Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of  _ Witch Weekly’s  _ Most-Charming-Smile Award, and now, your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. We will start off today with a little quiz to see if you read my books and how much you can remember.”

He passed out the quiz and Harry flipped through it, every question was about Gilderoy Lockhart! He wrote down random answers and then spent the rest of class stroking Jormy’s feathers. When the time was up Lockhart collected the papers and graded them. 

“Nobody remembered that my favorite color is lilac!” he complained. Once he was done grading the papers he walked over to the covered cage, “Now, I must warn you, it is my job to prepare you to face the worst of the worst. In this classroom, you may very well find yourself facing your worst fear.”

He yanked the cloth off the cage, everyone leaned forward eagerly to see what it was-

“ _ Cornish pixies _ !” yelled Seamus Finnigan.

“You’d be surprised by how feisty they can be,” said Lockhart, who then proceeded to throw open the cage door, releasing the pixies into the classroom.

There was absolute pandemonium. The pixies tour thru the classroom, knocking the pictures off the walls, tearing pages out of books and terrorizing the students. A group of pixies grabbed and Neville and picked him up, carrying him towards the ceiling. Ron and Draco jumped up and managed to each grab one of Neville’s feet, but to their surprise they only slowed the pixies down, who continued to carry all three of them off the ground. 

Jormy snapped at the pixies as they went by and Harry had to grab him to prevent him from going after them and growing in size.

At the front of the classroom Lockhart was trying to call for order as the students fled the classroom. He pulled out his wand, but one of the pixies snatched it from his hand. He looked back at the class, which now only consisted of Harry, struggling with Jormy, and Neville, Ron, and Draco, hovering above the floor.

“You four, you can go ahead and get them back in their cages,” said Lockhart, who then ran into his office, slamming and locking the door behind him.

“What!” yelled Draco, “My father will hear about this!”

Suddenly all the pixies in the room froze where they were. Harry turned and saw Hermione standing in the doorway, her wand out. Next to her stood Rolf, his mouth hanging open and from his headphones, which were around his neck, Harry could hear David Bowie’s “Space Odyssey” playing. 

“Hello, Hermione,” said Ron, who was still floating several feet above the ground, “What are you doing here?”

“Apparently, rescuing you,” she said, pocketing her wand.

“We have defense next,” said Rolf, “What happened here?”

“Lockhart,” replied Harry. They managed to get the others down and got the pixies back into the cage.

“Look at this,” said Rolf, holding up a long piece of paper, “he was feeding them the candy pixie dust, no wonder they were so hyper.” Rolf decided to take the pixie’s and as they watched, he placed the entire cage in his bag. 

Harry frowned, “Rolf, by any chance do you have other creatures in their?” he asked, remembering the story Rolf had told him about his grandfather’s suitcase, which had an enormous room inside it that held numerous creatures. 

“Maybe,” said Rolf, closing his bag.

Harry, Ron, Neville, and Draco then left to head to their last class of the day, hoping that it would go better than defense.  


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

They weren’t able to go to Hogsmeade that night to have Ron’s wand fixed because during dinner Professor McGonagall came over to tell Harry, Ron, and Draco that they would be reporting for detention that night. Ron would be cleaning the trophy room with Filch, Draco would be helping Snape prep potions and clean cauldrons, and Harry would be serving his detention with Lockhart. Apparently, Lockhart had requested that Harry spent his detention with him. 

Hermione was rather upset at dinner. During their defense class, Lockhart had attempted to tell them about various magical creatures since he no longer had the pixies to show, but according to Rolf, everything he said was wrong. 

After dinner, Draco, Ron, and Harry left to go to detention. The other three planned on spending their night continuing to map out the school. 

Harry went to the defense classroom and knocked before entering. The room was still a disaster zone after the pixie incident. 

“Ah, Harry, there you are!” said Lockhart, “I’ve been wanting to talk to you. I know after that day in the bookstore you got a taste of fame, and you’ve wanted more! I know exactly as you feel. But stealing a car? You’re not famous enough for that yet, unlike me. I know, you look at me and see an internationally famous wizard, but at your age I was just like you, if you can believe it, a complete unknown! Well, maybe you're a little more well known than I was, with the whole You-Know-Who thing-”

“Professor, can you please just tell me what you want me to do?”

“Well, the best thing you can do to increase what little fame you have-”

“I meant for my detention.” 

“Oh, of course, you can address the envelopes on my fan mail!”  

Time passed slowly for Harry as he addressed the letters, with Lockhart occasionally making a comment or some phrase that he had come up with, believing it to be witty.

The candles slowly burnt down and Harry felt his eyes drooping closed. The only thing keeping him awake was Jormy nibbling at his earlobe whenever he started to drift off. The candlelight cast strange shadows on the faces of the Lockhart’s in the paintings, which Harry noticed Lockhart had signed. 

As Harry began to address what felt like the thousandth letter, he heard it. A voice, whispering, cold and sinister, “ _ Come...come to me...kill...let me rip you...let me kill you… _ ”

Harry jumped up, knocking the ink across the envelope, his heart beating frantically. Jormy made a slightly distressed noise from where he was jostled on Harry’s shoulder. 

“What?” he cried.

“I know!” said Lockhart, “Six solid months on the top-seller list! Broke a record!”

“No,” said Harry, “That voice! Didn’t you hear it?”

Lockhart looked puzzled, “Voice? What voice?”

“That voice!” repeated Harry, “You didn’t hear it?”

Lockhart was looking at Harry as though he had gone mad, and perhaps he had.

“I think it’s getting late, maybe you should head off to bed,” he said cautiously, as if Harry was a madman that may attack him at any moment. Harry just nodded, too busy listening for the voice to answer. 

He left the classroom and he heard the voice again.

“ _ Kill...Kill… _ ”

He ran forward trying to find where the voice was coming from. He noticed that Jormy was leaning forward, balancing on his shoulder, “You hear it too, don’t you? Can you find the voice?”

Jormy jumped off his shoulder and flew towards the wall, Harry walked forward and pressed his ear against the wall below Jormy. He could hear something moving, but the walls were way too thick for him to hear anything on the other side, “Is there something  _ in _ the wall?” he asked aloud. 

He wasn’t expecting a response, so he was surprised when Jormy made a loud squeak that sounded a lot like an affirmative. 

“Harry?” he spun around, but saw nobody, then the air shifted and Hermione, Rolf, and Neville appeared from underneath the invisibility cloak.

“Are you alright?” asked Neville, they were all looking at him in concern. Harry told them about the voice he heard that Lockhart couldn’t hear, “But I know that it’s real and not just in my head because Jormy could hear it as well. I think it’s something in the walls.”

“In the walls?” asked Hermione, “What could be in the walls?” 

“And be capable of speech,” said Rolf. 

“I don’t know,” said Harry, “but whatever it is, it wants to kill.” Harry managed to squeeze underneath the invisibility cloak with his friends and they walked around the castle for a little while, listening for the voice as Hermione continued to sketch a map of the rooms. 

They then went to the Hufflepuff common room and met up with Ron and Draco who had just finished their detentions. 

“My arms feel like jelly,” said Ron, “I don’t think anyone has cleaned the trophy room in the past century.”

Harry told them about the voice in the wall, but they also didn’t have any ideas about what it could be.

“What could travel through walls?” asked Draco, “Do you think it could be a ghost?”

“I don’t think so,” said Harry, “I don’t think it was human.”

Harry laid down on one of the couches and closed his eyes. Jormy curled up on his stomach, “It makes no sense,” he murmured as he drifted off to sleep.

The next day at breakfast Harry was still thinking about the voice, when an owl swooped in and landed in front of Draco.

“Oh, no,” he said, “I forgot to respond to my mother’s letter, now she sent me a howler!” he held up the red envelopment for them to see.      

“She probably talked to my mum,” said Ron.

“Better open and get it over with,” said Neville, and Rolf nodded.

“No,” said Draco, “I’m running for it.” He then took the envelope, which was smoking, and ran out of the Great Hall.

“He’s not going to make, is he?” said Neville.

“Nope,” replied Rolf.

A second later they could hear Mrs. Malfoy’s voice coming from outside the hall, “DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY! HOW DARE YOU IGNORE MY LETTER! DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I’VE BEEN! SEVERUS SAID YOU DROVE A CAR INTO THE WHOMPING WILLOW, YOU’RE LUCKY THAT YOU WEREN’T KILLED! WAIT UNTIL YOU GET HOME!” 

A couple minutes went by before Draco came back into the Great Hall.

“I couldn’t get far enough away,” he said sitting down and placing his head on the table. Rolf patted him on the head, “There, there,” said Rolf, “you’ll survive.”  


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

A few days later on their Friday break they decided to go looking for the Room of Requirement again. This time they were able to find the tapestry that was described in the book on the seventh floor. They walked past it three times, like the book had said, but nothing happened. 

“This has to be the place,” said Draco, “how many tapestries with trolls in tutus can there be?” 

“The book said that the room becomes whatever you need,” said Hermione, “So we need to focus on what we need.”

“Well, give it a try Hermione,” said Rolf. 

Hermione walked past the tapestry three times and a wooden door appeared across from the tapestry. Hermione opened the door and they went in. The room had high ceilings, wood paneling, lots of windows, bookshelves and large armchairs, “This is the library I used to go to as a kid. It was my favorite place!”

“No surprise there,” said Draco.

Hermione walked over to one of the bookshelves and gasped, “These are books on magic! I think they’re from the school library!”

“It must somehow connect to the library,” said Neville.

“Let’s practice dueling,” said Draco. They left the room and returned, but this time the room was all stone with no windows. There were several training dummies and a dueling area. 

They began practicing spells and it was when Ron and Rolf were using the dueling area that it happened. They hadn’t made it over to Hogsmeade yet because they felt that the teachers were keeping a close eye on them after the car incident, so Ron’s wand was still broken. He was still able to use it a little, but sometimes, or most of the time, spells went wrong.

That day he attempted to cast the bogey hex at Rolf, but something went terribly wrong. Instead he somehow managed  to turn Rolf’s hair bright teal. They ran out of the room and went straight to the nearest bathroom. After looking in the mirror, Rolf declared that he loved it.

They spent the rest of the day exploring the room, seeing what they could make it turn into. They discovered a room that was filled with piles and piles of random items that Rolf named the Junk Room. 

They spent a long time sifting through the piles. They found a round stone table that looked like it could have been the famous round table of Arthurian legend. That night they levitated the table into the Great Hall and put it in the back corner and ate dinner at it. They had found mismatched table settings and they put different large plates and bowls in the center of the table, which filled with food so they could eat it family style, just like at the other tables. 

Rolf had been very proud when he managed to find a plastic plate with dragons on it with a matching cup.

Throughout dinner a few professors came up to Rolf and offered to help return Rolf’s hair back to its sandy brown color, except for Lockhart who complimented him on it. 

That weekend was Quidditch trials and Draco made the Slytherin team, as the seeker. His father also bought the entire Slytherin team new Nimbus 2001s. 

“So you bought your way onto the team?” asked Hermione when he told them this.

Draco immediately contacted his father and had the Malfoy family make a generous donation to Hogwarts in the form of new Nimbus 2001s for each team. 

“So now everyone is on equal footing,” he told Hermione. 

Harry fell back into the routine of school. Over the weekend they went to Hogsmeade through the statue of the one eyed witch and got Ron’s wand repaired. He was now able to perform all the spells correctly in their classes. 

They also stocked up on Honeydukes candy. 

Rolf had gotten into the habit of blasting muggle music through his headphones between classes. Whenever a teacher asked him to turn it down he told them that he was sharing a cultural experience with the other students. 

Later the next week Hermione stormed over to their table at breakfast looking furious.

“Oh no,” said Rolf, “What happened?” 

“Those stupid, cruel girls that dare call themselves my housemates!” 

“What did they do?!” demanded Harry.

“There’s this first year girl, she’s kind of, well, odd, and the others have been really cruel to her. So far she hasn’t reacted to anything they’ve done or said, but…”

“What happened today?” asked Draco.

“Some of the other girls charmed her clothes so that they appeared invisible to everyone, but her. She made it all the way out of the dorm room before she realized what had happened.”

“That’s horrible,” said Neville. 

“Where is she now?” asked Harry. Hermione indicated a girl with waist-length blonde hair and silvery grey eyes who sat alone at the Ravenclaw table.

“Her name is Luna Lovegood,” said Hermione.

“Go invite her over then,” said Draco. Hermione grinned and they watched as she talked to Luna and both girls walked over to their table. 

Rolf moved his bag so Luna could sit down next to him, “Hello, Luna,” said Rolf, “I’m Rolf, Rolf Scamander, which sounds like Salamander. In fact, can that be my new nickname?” 

The others introduced themselves to Luna who gave them all a dreamy looking smile. 

“We need to get you a plate,” said Ron, all the plates on their table were being used.

“Rolf has an extra dragon plate,” said Draco.

“No!” said Rolf.

“Yeah, he only found the one,” said Neville,

“That’s not true,” said Draco, “he found a second one, but he hid it because he didn’t want anyone else using it.” Rolf glared at Draco from across the table. Then to their surprise, Rolf pulled out a second dragon plate from his bag. He hesitated a second before handing it to Luna.

“Thank you for letting me use your plate,” said Luna, “it’s very pretty. Can you pass the tea?”

Luna easily joined in with the group, talking about nargles. Harry had no idea what nargles were, but judging from the others, they also didn’t know. But Harry smiled and went along with it and found himself enjoying Luna’s company.

Once she finished eating Luna bid them farewell and left for class. Rolf stared after her, “Okay,” he said, “I’m calling it now. I’m going to marry that girl someday.” 

“You just met her,” said Ron, “isn’t it a little early for declarations of love? I mean you haven’t even gone out with her once.”

“You’re right,” said Rolf, “I’m gonna fix that. Hey, Luna, wait up!” He ran out of the Great Hall after her.

“Wow,” said Draco, “he’s got it bad for her.”  

The other Ravenclaw girls weren’t brought up at breakfast, but later in the day, Harry and Neville approached Fred and George about buying some prank supplies. 

Later that day the boys sat outside the girls bathroom waiting.

“Do you think it will work?” asked Neville.

“Of course it will,” said Draco, “I was directly involved.” 

A second later there was a small explosion from the bathroom and three Ravenclaw girls ran out of the bathroom screaming. Their faces and hair were bright green. 

“How long did Fred and George say it will last?” asked Rolf.

“Oh, about a month,” said Harry, grinning. The boys burst out laughing as they went to class. 


	11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Harry sat in the room of requirement a couple weeks later. He was meditating and chanting to himself, Amato Amino Animato Animagus. He focused on the idea of change, of finding freedom in a new form and the fluidity of the change. The others sat around him doing the same.

They were in the Room of Requirement, which had changed to a bare room with wood floors and lots of windows streaming in sunlight. They sat on blue cushions with their legs crossed. They had been meditating for several hours now. 

Luna sat in the corner reading and listening to Rolf’s portable CD player. Jormy was curled up in the sun next to her. None of them had actually told Luna what they were trying to do, but one day out of the blue, she had asked them how their animagus transformations were coming along.

Harry felt a strange tingling sensation travel down his back, he stood up and with just a thought a full length mirror appeared in the corner of the room. They had all been practising using the room to make things appear while they were still in it.

He stood in front of the mirror and stared at his reflection, willing it to change, like he had been doing for days now. Enough time had finally passed that they should each be able to gain their new forms.  

Nothing happened for a long time, then he felt himself changing, he dropped to all fours and he felt fur growing on his body, his face elongated and he sprouted a tail. It wasn’t a painful transformation, although it was uncomfortable. Sirius had told him that the first transformation would be, but after that the transformation would become second nature. 

Harry stumbled for a second in his new form, as he struggled to gain his footing. He looked at the mirror and saw a black fox reflected back. He examined his new form. He was completely black except for the tip of his tail which was a silvery white. His eyes were still the same bright green. 

“Congratulations, Harry,” said Luna, breaking the silence and causing the others to snap out of their meditative states.

“Wow,” said Neville, as the others crowded around him, “You did it!”

Harry managed to transform back and forth a few times, getting the hang of it.

The others quickly went back to meditating so that they could also master the transformation. 

The next one to achieve their animagus form was Draco, who turned into a white leopard. He seemed quite pleased with his form, though he remarked that he had expected a snake. 

Next was Rolf, who was thrilled to turn into a fire-dwelling salamander, “See, now you have to call me Salamander!” 

Ron’s animagus was a tan greyhound and minutes after he was able to change, Hermione managed to change into a brown cat with thick fur.

That just left Neville. The others joined Luna to give Neville space. Around twenty minutes after the others, Neville managed to achieve his animagus form of a fluffy brown owl.  

That night they went to the forbidden forest and ran around in their animagus forms and they didn’t return to Hogwarts until the early morning. 

A few days later Harry was coming back from a very wet Quidditch practice when he saw Nearly Headless Nick staring out a window, muttering to himself.

“Hello, Nick,” said Harry, “Is everything alright?”

“No, no,” said Nick, “a matter of no importance, not like I really wanted to join. I mean, getting hit in the neck with an axe, should qualify one to get into the Headless Hunt, right?”

“I would think so.” 

“I know!” he said angrily, “But listen to this- ‘We can only accept huntsman whose head has completely parted with his body,’ he read from a letter. 

He was interrupted by the appearance of Mrs. Norris.

“Harry, you better return to the tower before Filch sees you tracking in mud. He’s been in a terrible mood. He got the flu, and he had to spend this morning scrubbing frog guts out of the potion room after a third year’s cauldron exploded.” Harry nodded.

“But is there anything I can do to help you about the Headless Hunt?” he asked.

“Actually, there is something you can do! This Halloween is my five hundredth deathday. I’m holding a party in one of the roomier dungeons. Perhaps you and your friends could attend? You could talk to Sir Patrick, mention how frightening I am and how I should join the Headless Hunt!”

“Sure, we’ll be there,” said Harry, distracted by the noise of footsteps coming around the corner; Filch was coming. He quickly rounded the opposite corner from Filch, then turned into his animagus form and ran as fast as he could down to the Hufflepuff dorms to meet up with his friends. 

When Halloween arrived a few days later, Harry had almost forgotten about the deathday party until breakfast that day. 

“By the way,” he said to everyone at the table, “I may have kind of said that we would go to Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party, today.” 

“Don’t tell me,” said Ron, “it’s the same time as the feast.” Harry nodded.

“No,” he said, “I refuse to miss the feast!”

“I think we should go,” said Hermione, “Harry already said we would, and how many living people do think can say that they’ve been to a ghost’s deathday party?”

“You’re only saying that because you missed last year’s feast,” said Ron, “If you had been there you’d understand why we can’t miss it.”

“What if we just went for a little while, then came to the feast?” suggested Neville.

At that moment Nearly Headless Nick floated over to their table, “Ah, there you Harry. I have been telling everyone how you will be at my deathday party! You are still coming right?”

“Of course,” said Harry, “I was just reminding the others here how we need to try to find a way to get you into the Headless Hunt.”

“Yes,” said Nick, “it’s really quite upsetting, I mean it is just an inch of flesh stopping me from joining.”

“Have you tried cutting your head off?” asked Rolf.

“Yes, multiple times,” replied Nick, “nothing has worked.”

“What about a ghost sword?” said Neville, the others stared at him, “I mean you are a ghost, so a regular weapon wouldn’t work on you.”

“Yeah,” said Draco, “The Bloody Baron has a sword, how about you ask him?”

Nick’s eyes lit up, “I will!”

He quickly left the Great Hall in search of the Bloody Baron.

At seven o’clock that night the group headed towards the dungeons. The passageway leading to the deathday party was lined with black candles that burned blue. It got colder the closer they got. They could hear something that sounded like fingernails being scraped on a blackboard. Jormy made a noise of alarm and jumped off Harry’s shoulder and fled the dungeon as fast as his wings could carry him.  

When they arrived Nearly Headless Nick greeted them. He was practically buzzing with excitement.

“Look!” he said, then pulled his head off, “It worked! I’m going to go show Sir Patrick!”

“We came, we saw, let’s go to the feast,” said Ron.

“He did see us and we no longer need to try and help him get into the Headless Hunt,” said Rolf.

“I think this is a party better suited for the dead,” said Luna. 

They left the dungeons and went to the Great Hall. As soon as they sat down at their table, food appeared. They began piling up their plates and they had been eating for several minutes when Luna turned to Ron, “Is your sister alright?”

“Ginny? Yeah, she’s fine,” but as he spoke he looked over to the Gryffindor table where Ginny could be seen sitting alone, not eating.

“She looks awfully pale,” commented Neville.

“I can’t remember seeing her ever talk to anyone,” said Draco. They watched the redhead in concern. They had gotten to know Ginny over the summer playing Quidditch at the Weasleys, and they knew that she was a girl with a fiery spirit, a true Gryffindor.

“I’m going to invite her over,” said Harry, but as he got up, Ginny also stood and left the Great Hall. Harry began to follow her when he saw Hagrid, who looked upset.

“Hello, Hagrid,” said Harry, “Is everything alright?” 

“Hello, Harry, said Hagrid, “Everything is fine, but something got in and killed the chickens earlier today. I’m going to ask the headmaster if I can set up a trap to try and catch whatever it is.”

Harry wished Hagrid good luck in catching the animal, then hurried to catch up to Ginny, but she was nowhere in sight. 

Jormy came flying towards Harry making little squeaks, he grabbed the edge of Harry’s sleeve and started pulling him down the corridor.

“Jormy,” said Harry in alarm, “What is it?”

Then Harry heard it, the voice coming from the walls, “ _...rip...kill...hungry...so hungry… _ ”

Harry took off running, following the voice, Jormy flying right next to him. He paused as the hall split off into two different directions, but Jormy kept flying, heading towards the left passage and Harry took off after him. 

“ _...kill...time to kill...must kill… _ ” 

Harry rounded a corner, and there was Ginny. She appeared to be in some sort of trance. There was a small pile of dead and mutilated chickens at her feet and as Harry watched she finished writing a message on the wall and what looked like the chicken blood. It said, ‘THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.’ 

She then reached down and picked up an unmoving bundle, Harry realized that it was Mrs. Norris, and she hung the cat up by her tail from a torch bracket. 

Harry heard people coming down the corridor and new that the feast must have just finished and that the students were returning to their dorms. He ran forward, his feet splashing through a large puddle of water. He grabbed the remains of the chickens, throwing them in his bag. He then pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it over himself and Ginny. He grabbed the unmoving girl around the waist and pulled her away from the message, just as the first group of students arrived.  

He pulled Ginny into a small alcove in the wall  behind a suit of armor, propping her up against his chest as she seemed to go entirely limp. He would have to wait until everyone left before attempting to leave, or risk bumping into someone.

He could hear people crying out in alarm and the sounds of conversation dying down as people caught sight of the message. Harry heard Filch demanding what was going on. Then Dumbledore appeared along with a large group of teachers. They began telling the students to return to their dorms immediately. Harry heard Dumbledore say that Mrs. Norris wasn’t dead, just petrified. 

Harry peeked around the armor as the students began leaving the hall, he scanned the crowd until he caught sight of Rolf’s teal hair.

“Jormy,” he whispered, “go get the others, bring them to the Room of Requirement.” 

Jormy slid out from underneath the cloak and vanished into the crowd. Once everyone was gone Harry cautiously made his way out from behind the armor. Ginny was a dead weight against him. He put a feather light charm on her, then picked her up bridal style, careful to make sure that the cloak still covered them both. Then he made his way to the Room of Requirement. 

When he got there, he knocked on the door which opened for him. The room was decorated in a combination of all the house colors and was filled with overstuffed chairs and had an enormous fireplace. 

Harry walked over to one of the chairs and gently set Ginny down before removing the cloak.

“Ginny!” cried Ron, “What happened to her!?” He ran to his sister, who didn’t respond her brother.  

“I don’t know,” said Harry, “I lost track of her when I ran into Hagrid leaving the Great Hall, when I caught up with her she was writing that message on the wall.”

“No,” said Ron, “Ginny wouldn’t do that!”

“That’s the thing,” said Harry, “I’m not sure it  _ was _ Ginny, she seemed to be in a trance and she’s been like this ever since.”

Harry pulled out the dead chickens from his bag, “This is where she got the blood for the message. Hagrid said something had killed the chickens this morning.”

Jormy snatched the chickens out of his hands and flew off with them to a corner to eat them. 

“What’s she holding?” asked Neville. He was pointing to Ginny’s left hand and Harry saw that she was holding a black book tightly against her chest. He had been so preoccupied before with making sure that they weren’t seen, that he hadn’t noticed the book.

“I think we should get it away from her,” said Draco. Harry nodded and pulled out his Quidditch gloves, not wanting to risk touching the book with his bare hands. He reached forward, but the moment he touched the book, Ginny lunged at him with a feral screech. 

Ron and Neville managed to grab her arms and pull her back and Hermione whipped out her wand and used a spell to put Ginny to sleep. She slumped back in the chair unmoving, but Harry saw that she continued to clutch the book even as she slept.

“What was that?” asked Ron.

“Dark magic,” said Draco, “the book must be cursed or something.”

Harry reached forward again and managed to pry the book away from Ginny. He opened it, but saw nothing. He quickly flipped through it, but the entire thing was blank.

“There’s nothing in it,” he said, “but I remember seeing Ginny writing in it. I had assumed it was a diary.” 

“Here let me try,” said Hermione, she pointed her wand at the book and tried several different revealing spells, but nothing appeared. 

Harry flipped through the pages again and this time something caught his eye, in the corner of a page was written ‘T.M. Riddle.’ 

“Who is T.M. Riddle?” he asked.

“I recognize that name,” said Ron, “it was on one of the trophies; Filch made me clean it like five times. He won some sort of award for special services to the school, like fifty years ago.”

“How did Ginny get it and what’s it doing to her?” asked Neville.

“And what’s the Chamber of Secrets?” said Rolf.

“I know about the Chamber of Secrets,” said Draco, “all Slytherins have heard of it. Back when the school founders opened the school, Salazar Slytherin wanted to be more selective with the students allowed in.”

“You mean he didn’t want muggleborns to be allowed in,” said Hermione, Draco nodded.

“Yeah, it caused a huge fight between the founders and Slytherin left the school. But according to the story, before he left he had made a hidden chamber that only his true heir could open and release a monster that would rid the school of muggleborns.”

“Where is the chamber?” asked Harry.

“No one knows if it even exists,” said Draco, “the school has been searched multiple times, but no chamber was ever found.”

“There are areas in the Potter Manor that Slytherin sealed off and no one has been able to open them,” said Harry, “and they’re in plain sight, if Slytherin went out of his way to actually hide the entrance, it may have never been found.”

“But wait,” said Ron, “if the chamber has been opened, Ginny couldn’t have done it. We aren’t related to Slytherin.”

“Yeah,” said Draco, “As far as I know the only one of us who might be very distantly related to Slytherin is you, Harry.”  

“Also, if the ‘enemies of the heir’ are muggleborns,” said Rolf, “why Filch’s cat?”

“And what could have done that to Mrs. Norris?” asked Neville.

“Poor Mrs. Norris,” said Luna from where she sat next to Ginny, stroking her red hair soothingly.  

“The cockatrice petrifies people, but that’s usually fatal,” said Rolf.

“Whatever it is,” said Harry, “it must be the voice I’ve been hearing in the walls. I heard it again today just before I found Ginny.”

“Cockatrices can’t travel through walls,” said Rolf, “or talk.” 

“Then what is it?” asked Neville. They sat in silence, contemplating the situation. They decided to spend the night in the Room of Requirement rather than try to bring Ginny up to her dorm. They chatted late into the night, but they still weren’t sure what the monster could be or what was happening to Ginny. 


	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

As the weeks passed the group kept an eye on Ginny and had her sit with them at meals. After questioning her carefully they had determined that she had no memory of the events that occurred on Halloween night. They didn’t mention the diary to her, but sometimes Harry caught Ginny staring at him as if she know that he had it. 

Luna started staying in the Gryffindor dorm room with Ginny to keep an eye on her. She said that several times Ginny had gotten up in the middle of the night and attempted to leave the dorm, but Luna had stopped her each time. Harry assumed that she was trying to go after the book and began carrying it around with him, paranoid that if he let it out of his sight, it would be stolen.

Each night the group, minus Luna, would sneak out to continue to work on the map, which was nearly complete. They also used this time to search for the Chamber of Secrets. They would listen for the voice, but none of them heard anything. 

They tried researching the chamber at the library, but none of the books gave any hints to its whereabouts or what the monster was supposed to be. It was just like Draco said, the Chamber of Secrets was a story, and most believed that it didn’t even exist.  

On the day of the first Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor, Harry was feeling preoccupied with their lack of progress. Besides not getting any leads on the Chamber of Secrets or the monster, Harry had no luck with the diary, and was beginning to think that he would have to give in and just try writing it in.

Draco, who had been rather excited with the prospect of facing off against Harry, seemed just as preoccupied on the day of the match. Harry knew that the others were getting just as frustrated with their lack of progress as he was. 

The day was muggy, with the hint of a thunderstorm in the air. Draco and Harry were both wished luck as they went down to the Quidditch field to join their teams. 

When the game began Harry soared high into the air to keep an eye out for the snitch. On the other side of the field Draco had done the same. 

Harry just barely managed to dodge a bludger that went flying towards his head. George went flying after the bludger and gave it a powerful whack, sending it flying towards a Slytherin chaser, but the bludger changed directions and went flying back towards Harry. 

George managed to hit it again, this time hitting it towards Draco, who didn’t even have the chance to move out of the way before it once again changed directions and came back, once again aimed at Harry’s head. 

Harry dodged it and flew to the other side of the field. Draco pulled up next to him on his broom, “What’s going on?” asked Draco, “That bludger keeps going after you!”

They were interrupted when Harry was once again forced to dodge the bludger, “I don’t know,” he called to Draco, “but something is wrong with it, I think it’s been tampered with!” 

Harry caught a glimpse of gold lower on the field and dove after it, he was going to end this game now, before that bludger took his head off. 

“Harry, watch out!” yelled Draco, and Harry just managed to swerve to prevent the bludger from hitting his head, but it hit him in the side and he felt pain shot through his arm, but he managed to reach forward with his other arm and grab the snitch before he hit the ground and went flying off his broom. 

He sat up dazed, cradling his injured arm, which had to be broken, and saw the bludger flying towards him before he fainted. 

He must have only been a few minutes because when he woke up, he was still lying on the Quidditch field and it had started to rain. 

“Harry!” said Draco, “Are you alright?” 

Draco was leaning over Harry, looking concerned. Harry could see that the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team crowded around him. Suddenly Draco was roughly shoved away from Harry, and Gilderoy Lockhart appeared. 

“Don’t worry Harry, I’m here to fix your arm,” Lockhart told him.

“He doesn’t want you to fix his arm!” cried Draco, “He needs to go to the Hospital Wing!” 

“Nonsense,” said Lockhart, “I can fix it right here!”

“No!” said Harry, “I’d rather not lose my arm, I’ll just go see Madam Pomfrey.” But Lockhart was ignoring Harry and had already pointed his wand at Harry’s arm. Harry felt a rather unpleasant sensation travel through his arm from his shoulder and the pain vanished, but it no longer felt like he had an arm.

Draco let out a cry of alarm.

“Ah, well,” said Lockhart, “that can happen sometimes, but the good news is, you have no broken bones!”

“That’s because he has no bones!” cried Draco who shoved past Lockhart and pulled Harry to his feet, “Come on Harry, let’s get you to the Hospital Wing. Wait until I tell my father about what that idiot has done this time.” 

Harry looked down at his arm and nearly passed out again, his arm looked like some weird lump of loose flesh without the bones in it.

Draco helped Harry off the field and they were quickly joined by their friends who helped bring him to the Hospital Wing.

“By the way,” he asked Draco, “what happened to the bludger?”

“Hermione took care of it,” said Draco, “she blasted it to dust.” 

When they got to the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey grumbled about Lockhart, “What was he thinking? You should have come to me right away! Bones I can mend in no time, but regrowing them? A long and nasty process. You’ll have to stay the night.”

She directed Harry to a bed and pulled a curtain closed so he could change into a pair of hospital pajamas with Draco’s help. 

Harry was then given Skele-Gro to drink, which tasted horrible and he barely managed to swallow it. Madam Pomfrey then kicked everyone out, saying that Harry needed rest.

Harry laid in the bed for what felt like hours, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in his arm. At some Jormy had appeared and curled up by his feet, Harry wasn’t sure how he had managed to get into the Hospital Wing.

Harry eventually fell asleep and was woken what felt like hours later by a hissing noise. For a second he thought it was the voice in the wall again, but then he realized it was Jormy, who was wrapped around a struggling house elf.

“Dobby!” said Harry, trying to keep his voice down, “What are doing here?”

“Harry Potter ignored Dobby’s warning! Harry Potter came back to Hogwarts!” squeaked Dobby from where Jormy held him. 

“Yeah, though you nearly got me expelled with that barrier trick you performed,” said Harry. 

“Harry Potter is in grave danger, Harry Potter must go home. Dobby thought his bludger may be enough-”

“Wait,  _ your _ bludger!? You’re the one who sent it after me? I was nearly killed!” 

“No!” cried Dobby, “Dobby would never kill Harry Potter! Dobby just wanted to hurt Harry Potter enough to send him home!”

“Oh, was that all?” said Harry, “Listen Dobby, I know about the Chamber of Secrets; is that what you’re afraid of?”

Dobby opened his mouth, but stopped, his ears twitching. Jormy looked in the direction of the Hospital Wing doors, then Harry heard it too, footsteps. With a snap of his fingers Dobby vanished and Harry lifted the covers and Jormy dove under them, shrinking. 

Harry laid back down just as the door opened and Dumbledore walked in wearing a nightgown and carrying one end of what looked like a statue. Professor McGonagall carried the other end. Madam Pomfrey hurried over to them as they placed the statue onto a bed. 

“What happened?” asked Madam Pomfrey.

“He was found on the stairs,” said Professor McGonagall, “we think he was trying to visit Potter. He’s been petrified.” 

Harry managed to lean forward enough to get a glimpse of the figure’s face. It was Colin Creevey, a Gryffindor first year. He had asked Harry if he could take a picture of him with his camera a few weeks back. 

As Harry watched, Dumbledore held up Colin’s camera and opened it, but there was a puff of steam and McGonagall gasped, “What could have done this, Albus? What does it mean?”

“It means, my dear Minerva, that the Chamber of Secrets has once again been opened.” 


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

As soon as the professors left, Harry told Jormy to go find the others. He needed to know what happened. He didn’t have to wait long though, because just a few minutes later Ron and Neville entered the hospital wing, carrying an unconscious Luna.

Madam Pomfrey went running over to them, directing them to place Luna in an empty bed and demanding to know what had happened.

“We just found her like this,” said Ron. Once Madam Pomfrey was busy checking over Luna, the two boys hurried over to Harry.

“What happened?” whispered Harry.

“Ginny,” said Neville, “she went after the diary, she knocked Luna out.” 

“We went back to the dorm room and found the place ransacked,” explained Ron, “None of our roommates knew what had happened because they were still in the common room, celebrating Gryffindor’s Quidditch victory. We found Luna and when we saw that the diary was gone, we went looking for Ginny. The others are still looking for her.” 

“She must have opened the Chamber of Secrets,” said Harry, “Colin Creevey is in the next bed over, petrified.”

“Bloody hell!” said Ron, “We just saw him in Gryffindor Tower a little while ago!” 

“We need to find Ginny,” said Neville.

“You guys go help the others look, but be careful,” said Harry, “I can’t leave here yet.” 

At that point Madam Pomfrey noticed that Ron and Neville were still there and shooed them out of the room. 

In the bed across from Harry, Luna was sitting up, looking dazed, but then that was also how she normally looked.

“Hello, Luna,” said Harry, “How are you feeling?”

“Alright,” she said, “though everything is spinning slightly.”

“Perhaps you should lie down then,” suggested Harry.

“I think I will,” she then leaned back on the pillows, closed her eyes and appeared to fall fast asleep. 

Harry quickly joined her in sleep, hoping that he wouldn’t wake up to find anymore of his friends in the Hospital Wing with him. 

As soon as Harry was released from the Hospital Wing in the morning he went searching for his friends. He found them huddled in conversation around their table in the Great Hall.

“Harry,” said Hermione, “how are you feeling?”

“Fine, have you found Ginny?”

“No,” said Ron, “She’s just disappeared, and we’re not quite done with the map yet, so we still can’t use that to track her down.”

Harry spotted Jormy on the table, eating from a pile of sausage. 

“Jormy,” said Harry, “can you find Ginny?” Jormy swallowed a sausage whole, before flying out of the Great Hall. The others quickly ran after him. 

Jormy led them to the area where Ginny had wrote the message on the wall, but kept going, heading into the girls bathroom. 

The floor of the bathroom was flooded. Jormy landed on top of one of the bathroom stalls and Harry could see a pair of shoes under it.

“Ginny,” he called.

“She’s been in there for hours,” Harry turned to see the ghost of a girl with glasses, her hair was in pigtails. Harry noticed that she was wearing a Hogwarts school uniform. 

“Hello, Myrtle,” said Hermione. 

“Myrtle?” asked Ron.

“Moaning Myrtle,” said Hermione, “she haunts this bathroom, it’s why no one uses,” she said the last part in a whisper so Myrtle wouldn’t hear.

Harry approached the stall that Ginny was in and knocked, the door wasn’t locked and swung open. Ginny sat on the toilet seat, her eyes were red from crying.

“Ginny, are you alright?” asked Harry gently.

“I tried to get rid of it, but I couldn’t,” she said in a small voice. Harry followed her gaze and saw the diary lying in a puddle.

“She tried to flush it down the toilet,” said Myrtle. So that explained the water, it must have caused the toilet to overflow and flood the bathroom.

Draco cautiously picked up the diary from the floor and shook it to get some of the water off it.

“Ginny,” said Harry, “how about you come with us so we can help you. We’ll help find a way to destroy the diary, okay?” Ginny nodded and followed Harry out of the bathroom stall. 

Harry noticed that Jormy was circling the sinks in the middle of the room, clawing at them even.

“What are you doing?” Harry asked him, “Does anyone see anything odd about these sinks?”

They began examining the sinks, but Harry couldn’t figure out the reason for Jormy’s behavior.

“Look at this,” said Rolf, “It’s a carving of a snake.” They all crowded around Rolf and looked at the small stone snake.

“The snake is the symbol of Slytherin,” commented Neville.

“No,” said Ron, “it can’t be! How can the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets be in the girls bathroom!”

“It wouldn’t have been a bathroom when it was first built,” pointed out Hermione.

“Myrtle,” said Harry, “how did you die?”

“Oh,” she said, “I like you. Nobody ever bothers to ask. I died right here, in this bathroom. I was crying in that stall over there, when I heard a voice. It was a boy, he was speaking a funny language. I opened up the stall to tell him to go away! And then I saw it, a great, big, yellow eye, and then I died.”

“Rolf, you’re the animal expert,” said Ron, “What does that sound like to you?”

Rolf frowned for a moment, “It sounds like a basilisk, which would make sense. A basilisk is after all, a giant snake. And Salazar Slytherin was a known parselmouth, and his heir would be one as well.”

“But nobody else has died,” said Draco, “when someone looks a basilisk in the eye, they die, no exceptions, and Mrs. Norris and Colin are both alive.” 

“Unless,” said Rolf, “what if they didn’t actually see it? Harry, do you know if Colin had his camera on him?”

“He did,” said Harry, “the film was destroyed.”

“He must have saw the basilisk through his camera,” said Rolf, “and Mrs. Norris could have seen its reflection in the water on the floor.”  

“Okay, but how has no one not noticed a giant snake going around the school?” asked Draco.

“We have noticed,” said Harry, “the voice.”

“But that’s impossible! Basilisks can’t talk, unless, Harry are saying you’re a parselmouth?”

“I don’t actually know what that this,” he confessed.  

“Someone who can talk to snakes,” Hermione told him.

“Oh, then yes. I guess I am a parselmouth.” 

“What!” cried Draco, “And you didn’t tell us? You didn’t tell me? You mean this entire time, you could have been teaching me to talk to snakes!”

“I never realized that I was speaking in a different language!”

“Guys, we still don’t know how the basilisk is getting around,” said Neville, interrupting them.

“Yes we do,” said Hermione, “the answer is right in front of us. The pipes.” 

They all stared at the sink with the snake on it.

“What are you going to do know?” asked Ginny.

“We’re going to get that diary as far away from here as possible until we can destroy it,” answered Harry, “Then we’re going to get Luna from the Hospital wing, and then, we’re going to open the Chamber of Secrets.”               


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

While the others went to the Hospital Wing, Harry went to the Room of Requirement. Since Ginny couldn’t remember Halloween night, she couldn’t remember anything about the Room of Requirement, and none of them had told her anything about it since.

Harry went into the Junk Room, planning on hiding it among the different piles and trusting Jormy to help him find it later. 

He probably should have just put the diary in the room to begin with, then Colin wouldn’t be petrified right now. But he had been reluctant to part with the diary. He had felt its magic calling out to him and he had enjoyed the feeling it gave him. It felt like he was being reunited with an old friend.

As he took out the diary, another reason he had kept it struck him. It felt familiar, very familiar in fact. He reached into his bag and pulled out the gold locket he had found at Grimmauld Place.

The magic from the diary and the locket were very similar he realized. He placed the locket inside the diary, then shoved them both into a random pile.

“Remember where they are,” he told Jormy, who stuck his head out and sniffed the pile.    

He left the Room of Requirement and went to the Hospital Wing where Ginny was tearfully apologizing to Luna, even though she couldn’t actually remembering knocking her out. 

“It’s alright,” Luna told her, “I know that it wasn’t you last night. It was Riddle.”

“Riddle?” asked Draco, “So what are you saying, that the diary is actually possessed with its past owner and he can possess others through it?”

“Yes,” said Luna, “What did you think was happening?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Draco, “How do you know these things Luna? On second thought, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

“She is a woman of mystery,” said Rolf. 

They went back to the girls bathroom, and feeling rather stupid, Harry stared at the snake, and hissed,  _ “Open.” _

The sinks moved to reveal a tunnel sloping downwards into the dark.

“Any tips for fighting a basilisk?” asked Draco.

“Their hide is nearly impenetrable to both magic and weapons,” said Rolf, “It’s most vulnerable areas are its eyes and the soft pallet of it’s mouth, but that one’s tricky because the basilisk is extremely venomous.”

“Of course it is,” said Ron, “because being able to kill someone with a glance isn’t enough.” 

“We won’t be fighting the basilisk,” Harry told them.

“We aren’t?” said Neville, sounding relieved. 

“No, right Jormy?” Harry looked at the occamy who was leaning off his shoulder towards the tunnel, sniffing the air, “Jormy is going to incapacitate it, then I’m going to try to talk to it. Fighting will be a last resort.” 

“Do think you can reason with it?” asked Hermione, sounding unconvinced.

“It’s not a mindless beast,” said Luna, “though it has been locked away for a very long time.” 

“Yeah, look at the passage, no one could have been done there in years. I think Ginny just opened the chamber and then left, except for the first time when she added the message,” said Harry, “Think about it, the monster is supposed to kill all muggleborns according to the stories, but so far it hasn’t. It petrified a cat and one student. After petrifying Colin it could have killed him, but didn’t. I don’t think it has been giving an order to kill yet. I think it's just been leaving to hunt for food.” 

“So without the diary here,” said Draco, “Riddle won’t be able to give it the kill order.” 

Harry nodded, “So hopefully as a parselmouth I can still convince it to listen to me.”

They turned to the tunnel and approached it cautiously.

“The basilisk must also use this tunnel,” Rolf remarked.

“Harry, try saying stairs,” suggested Draco.

_ “Stairs,” _ hissed Harry and with a series of clicks, steps appeared in the tunnel, “How did you know about that?”

“I didn’t,” said Draco, “I just couldn’t picture Salazar Slytherin sliding down a tube every time he wanted to visit his pet snake.”

They walked down the tunnel, which was extremely dirty. As they left Myrtle called goodbye to them and offered to share her toilet with them when they all died.

The bottom of the tunnel was covered in small animal carcasses that crunched under their feet. 

“Basilisk!” screamed Neville, covering his eyes.

“No, that’s just its shed skin,” said Rolf. The Basilisks skin was enormous, lying curled up along the tunnel floor. It was a poisonous green color.

Jormy flew over to the skin and appeared to be examining it critically.

“Think you can take it?” Harry asked him and Jormy made a noise somewhere between a squeak and a roar, “I’m going to take that as a yes.”

They continued through the tunnel, using  _ lumos  _ to guide their way forward. They came to a wall with two entwined serpents with emerald eyes carved into it. 

_ “Open,” _ hissed Harry.

The two serpents moved and the door parted for them and they entered the chamber. 

The chamber was dimly lit, filled with shadows, and the whole place seemed to have an eerie green light covering it. There were towering stone pillars with stone snakes wrapping around them. The room was so high, Harry couldn’t make out the ceiling.

At the other end of the large chamber was a huge statue, as tall as the chamber, of Salazar Slytherin himself. In front of the statue was a large pool of water. 

“So, where’s the basilisk?” whispered Ron, though he spoke quietly, his voice still echoed across the chamber slightly. 

The basilisk must of heard him, because suddenly the enormous snake burst out of the pool of water at the base of the statue. The group quickly dropped their eyes to the floor and Neville screamed. 

Jormy went flying forward, growing in size until he was as large as the basilisk. He slammed into the basilisk, wrapping his body around the thrashing snake. Jormy’s wings thrashed against the basilisks face, forcing it to close its eyes. Jormy wrapped himself around the basilisk's’ head, covering its eyes and forcing its mouth closed. He then dragged the snake down to the chamber floor, pinning him there. 

_ “Stop fighting,” _ hissed Harry. The basilisk’s thrashing slowed somewhat, Harry suspected that it was more surprised to hear parselmouth than anything,  _ “Stop!” _

The basilisk stopped moving at the command, but Jormy didn’t relax his grip on the giant snake. 

Harry walked towards the two creatures,  _ “Close your eyes.”  _

After a second Jormy shifted away from the snake’s head and Harry saw that the basilisk had closed its eyes. 

“Jormy, let him go.” Jormy released the basilisk, but he didn’t shrink down to his smaller size. 

The basilisk coiled himself up and pointed its head towards the group its tongue flicking out, but it kept its eyes closed.

“Wow,” said Rolf, “he’s beautiful!”

“That’s not the word I would use,” said Ron. 

“Majestic?” suggested Luna.

“No, that’s not it either,” replied Ron. 

“Harry, teach me how to say hello in parselmouth,” said Draco. 

Harry ignored them and focused on the basilisk,  _ “My name is Harry Potter. These are my friends. Do not attack us, or anyone else in this castle.”  _

“What did you tell him?” asked Hermione, and Harry repeated what he had said in English.

“Can we call him Basil?” asked Rolf, “It can be short for basilisk.” 

“Oh why not?” say Draco sarcastically, “I mean, we already have a dragon named Norbert, why not have a basilisk named Basil?”

“Exactly!” said Rolf. 

“You have a dragon?” asked Ginny.

“He’s very sweet,” Luna told her.

_ “Basilisk-uh-Basil, can I call you Basil?” _

_ “You may call me what you wish,” _ hissed the basilisk.

_ “Okay, Basil, have you talked to someone with the last name Riddle, first initial starts with a T?” _

The basilisk tilted its head as if thinking,  _ “No.” _

_ “From now on you will listen to me and only me, and you will tell me if someone else tries to find or talk to you. You will only travel through the pipes and hunt in the forest.” _

_ “Yes, master,” _ hissed Basil.

Harry turned to his friends, “Basil says he hasn’t talked to a T. Riddle and he will travel through the pipes and hunt in the forest.” 

“We need to look at that diary,” said Hermione, “and figure exactly who Riddle is.”

“Tom Riddle,” said Ginny, “I’ve talked to him, in the diary.”

“You can talk to him!?” asked Draco, and Ginny nodded.

“Let’s go and take a look at it,” said Harry, “Jormy, stay here and keep an eye on Basil, make sure he only travels through the pipes and only goes to the forest. And keep him away from Norbert.” 

They left the chamber and started walking towards the Room of Requirement to figure out the diary once and for all.  __

 


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

When they got to the Room of Requirement Harry had a moment of panic that he wouldn’t be able to find the diary without Jormy, but after a few minutes of searching he recognized the pile and pulled out the diary. Before he even touched it he could feel the magic coming from it. When he picked it up, the locket slipped out and hit the floor. Draco bent to pick it up.

“What’s this?”

“I found it at Sirius’ old home,” Harry told him, “the magic coming from it remained me of the diary, so I decided to leave it here.”

Draco frowned, “I don’t feel any magic from it, and I didn’t feel anything coming from the diary either.”

“Really?” asked Harry, “I think it's buzzing with power. Can anyone else feel it?”

Everyone shook their heads, “It always seemed like just a diary to me,” said Ginny, “I think that was part of the reason I was willing to keep writing in it. It seemed harmless.” 

Harry frowned. He then sat down on the floor and opened the book. He pulled out a quill and a bottle of ink from his bag.

“You’re not seriously going to write it in, are you?” said Ron.

“Yep,” said Harry, he then wrote, ‘Hello. Who are you?’

The words vanished and were replaced with, ‘Hello, my name is Tom Riddle. How did you come across my diary?’

Harry began writing. 

‘I found it.’

‘Who are you?’

‘No one important.’

‘I don’t believe that.’ 

The others sat down around him and leaned forward, “What should I say now?” he asked them.

“Ask him about when he went to Hogwarts,” said Hermione, “but don’t give him any information about yourself.”

‘When did you go to Hogwarts?’ 

‘I went to Hogwarts in 1938.’

‘What house were you in?’

‘Slytherin. What house are you in?’

‘My house doesn’t matter. Did you open the Chamber of Secrets?’

‘Yes.’

‘Are you a parselmouth?’

‘Yes.’

Harry slammed the book closed, breathing fast, “You said that the heir of Slytherin would have to be a parselmouth. Why?” he asked Draco. 

“It’s genetic,” said Draco, “Parseltongue is a knowledge passed through family lines.”

“So, only the heir of Slytherin should be able to open the chamber because it’s genetic?” 

Draco nodded, “That’s how it should work. I’m not entirely sure how you ended up being a parselmouth. What are you getting at?”

“The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before, by Tom Riddle, sometime after 1938. The only way he could have done that was if he was the heir of Slytherin. Last year, you said that Voldemort was believed to be the heir of Slytherin.”

“So,” said Neville, “if I’m understanding this correctly, you think Tom Riddle grew up to become Voldemort?”

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” said Draco, “Voldemort was all about blood supremacy and purebloods. Riddle isn’t a pureblood name. Voldemort would have to be a Gaunt, they’re the descendents of Slytherin.”

“Unless, he’s a halfblood,” said Hermione, “we should go to the library and look at that book with the family trees.”

They left the Room of Requirement, leaving the diary and locket behind. They went to the library and got out the book with family trees. Hermione flipped through the book until she came upon the Gaunt family tree. 

“Let’s see,” said Hermione, tracing the family tree, “it looks like Marvolo Gaunt had a son, Morfin Gaunt, but he had no children. Marvolo had a second child, but they must have been disowned from the family because their name is scratched out. Whoever it was, they had a child, but you can’t read the name and it doesn’t show the father.”

“Perhaps, they were disowned for becoming involved with a muggle,” said Rolf. 

At that point the librarian came to tell them to leave, it was nearly curfew. They put away the book and left the library. They began heading back to the Room of Requirement, not realizing just how late it was.

“How could Voldemort be a halfblood if he was all about purebloods?” said Draco.

“People are very strange,” said Luna.

“You all are in big trouble,” said a voice behind them, “out of bed after curfew.” They spun around to see Filch, grinning at them wickedly. 

“But-” protested Hermione.

“Come with me,” said Filch and they had no choice but to follow him. Harry cursed under his breath at their stupidity. They had been running around the school all year and hadn’t gotten caught once! He at least partially blamed it on their newly acquired animagus forms. They had come to rely on them too much, using them to prowl around the castle and flee from professors as needed. 

With Ginny and Luna it was harder since they weren’t animagus. Next time he decided, the others would have to stick to their animal forms and Harry would give Ginny and Luna his invisibility cloak. Or perhaps he would have to ask the girls their opinions on becoming an animagus.

Harry was broken out of his thoughts by their arrival at Professor McGonagall’s office. Filch knocked on the door and McGonagall called for them to come in.

“Professor, I caught these students up out of bed,” Filch told her. McGonagall scanned the group over her glasses.

“Thank you, Filch,” she said, “I’ll take care of them.” 

Filch left the office, grinning.

“Professor, please,” said Hermione, “It’s barely past curfew. You have to understand, we were at the library when we decided to go visit Colin Creevey in the Hospital Wing. We thought we had more time before curfew.” 

McGonagall stared at them for a moment before her expression softened, “Of course. I understand. How about you head back to your dorms and visit him tomorrow.”

They thanked Professor McGonagall and left her office breathing sighs of relief.

“Have you always been such a good liar?” Draco asked Hermione.

“No,” she said, “but I’m getting pretty good at it hanging around you guys.” 

They decided not to risk their luck any more that night and went to the Hufflepuff dorm and crashed there for the night.

Several days passed and Harry and his friends decided to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. Harry hated to disappoint Sirius and Remus, and he had been looking forward to spending Christmas with them, but he knew that staying and keeping an eye on Basil was more important. He still didn’t trust the basilisk enough to leave him alone, especially when the diary was still intact and in the school. 

They had attempted to destroy the diary, but had no luck.   

After break, Draco made a mistake in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Lockhart was attempting to teach them about dueling by telling them an outrageous story about a duel he had been in, when Draco stood up and said that Lockhart knew nothing about dueling and that he bet that he had never been in a duel, let alone won. 

The next day Lockhart had set up a dueling club for the second years, which he made quite clear was mandatory for Draco to attend. 

The Great Hall was filled with students that night; all of them were excited for the club except for Harry and his friends. Although they were looking forward to seeing Lockhart get his ass kicked by Snape. And they weren’t disappointed. 

In Lockhart’s demonstration with Snape, Lockhart was sent flying backwards across the dueling stage.

Harry and Draco weren’t completely successful in hiding their snickers and Lockhart called them up to the stage to demonstrate the disarming spell. 

As they walked up onto the stage they grinned at each other. Harry even thought Snape, who knew that Mr. Malfoy had been teaching them dueling, looked amused.

They bowed to each other, wands at the ready, “Scared, Potter?” hissed Draco, his eyes full of mischief. 

“You wish, Malfoy,” replied Harry with a grin. 

Then they started, Harry immediately put up a shield before sending a stupefy at Draco, which he easily dodged, sending a spell at Harry that condensed into green goo when it hit his shield.

Harry turned the floor under Draco’s feet to ice, causing him to lose his balance and cause his next spell to go flying away from Harry. 

Harry used an expulso, which Draco blocked with a shield. Draco retaliated by sending a strange mist at Harry that went straight through his shield. It made him feel like he was floating underwater, everything was muffled and he couldn’t see a thing. He tried several counter curses, but nothing happened. He managed to create a strong enough breeze to blow away the mist and had just enough time to dodge Draco’s next spell.

Harry sent purple sparks at Draco, then while he was distracted by them, he transfigured a handful of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, that he had been keeping in his pocket for Jormy to snack on, into needles and sent them flying at Draco, who barely managed to avoid them.

Harry wasn’t sure how long he and Draco flung spells at each other, before Harry decided to try a different approach. He sent several spells at Draco and then charged at him while he was deflecting them with a shield. 

He tackled Draco, landing on top of him, his wand pointed right at his neck, “Got you.”

“Look again,” said Draco and Harry saw Draco’s wand was pointed right at his heart, “looks like a tie.” 

Harry stood up and helped Draco to his feet as people cheered. They rejoined their friends and left, ignoring Lockhart when he called after them. 

“We really need to do something about him,” said Harry.

The next day they began sending out letters by owl to towns that Lockhart claimed to have helped in his books. They even tried writing to the vampire Lockhart claimed to have spent years traveling with in his book  _ Voyages with Vampires. _

As the days passed they began getting responses from people who claimed to have never heard of a Gilderoy Lockhart. According to them the events had occurred, but a different witch or wizard had been involved in helping them.

Once they got a sizeable pile of letters, they sent copies to the  _ Daily Prophet _ , which printed segments of the letters in the paper the next day, calling Lockhart a fraud. 

After that, Lockhart disappeared from the school and Snape began teaching defense as well as potions for the remainder of the year.

As the year came to an end, Harry became less worried about Basil attacking any students. No one else had been petrified and Neville had assisted Madam Pomfrey with growing the mandrakes and Colin and Mrs. Norris had both been revived.

By the last day of classes they still hadn’t managed to destroy the diary. Out of curiosity Harry had tried destroying the locket as well, but just like the diary, the locket wasn’t even damaged. 

They stood in the Room of Requirement taking turns blasting the diary with spells. Harry held the locket, feeling the familiar wave of magic from it. They had tried to research the locket and believed it to be the locket of Salazar Slytherin, an heirloom passed through the Slytherin line. Which made sense in a way, if Tom Riddle was indeed Voldemort, then both items would have been his at some point.  

He began wandering around the Junk Room, examining items, when he felt a strange pull in the locket’s magic. He followed it until he began to hear an almost faint buzzing noise. He climbed up one of the piles of objects until he found what looked like a silver tiara with a blue oval shaped sapphire, designed to look like a bird. 

When he picked it up, it buzzed in a familiar way against his skin.

He walked back to the others, “You won’t believe it, but I found another of whatever these things are.”

He held up the tiara for the others to see, “It has the same magic as the locket and the diary.”

“That looks like the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw,” said Luna.

“I’ve heard of that,” said Hermione, “It disappeared after being stolen by Rowena Ravenclaw's’ daughter, Helena.” 

“So we have Slytherin’s locket, and Ravenclaw’s diadem,” said Draco, “I can see the connection between them, having both belonged to founders of Hogwarts, but how does the diary fit in?”

“I’m not sure,” said Harry, “perhaps Tom Riddle found the diadem as well when he was at Hogwarts. But did the other founders have any special objects?”

“Helga Hufflepuff had a cup and Godric Gryffindor had a sword,” said Rolf, “I don’t know where they are currently.”  

“Do you think you’re just sensing them because they’re all powerful items?” asked Neville. 

“I don’t think that’s it,” said Harry, “I mean, I haven’t felt this with anything else, and that includes the Philosopher’s Stone, and it feels like they have the same magical signature.”

In the end Harry took all three items back with him to Potter Manor. Now that he knew to use parseltongue to open Slytherin’s secret rooms, he planned on keeping the items locked in there.

When the train pulled into the station Harry was met by a very enthusiastic Sirius who engulfed him in a hug. Sirius had barely let go of him before Remus hugged him. 

Harry said goodbye to his friends, promising to see them soon to continue research on the items and Tom Riddle and his connection to Voldemort. 

Somehow Harry felt like he knew Voldemort wasn’t gone, and just maybe they could find out something about these items that would help to defeat him for good when he eventually reappeared. 

They could make it a summer project, destroy the dark lord. 


End file.
